City Hall's, uh, playful side

We love getting the dirt on City Hall by reading the Chronicle's NewsWatch: City Hall blog. But it's usually not quite as titillating as something Matt Stiles put up yesterday: the story of a pink sex toy found in a men's room at the City Hall Annex.

Stiles found out about the discovery when he got to his office yesterday: a police officer, a janitor and two security guards were huddled around a trash can into which the item had apparently been tossed. The sex toy — still working, Stiles reports — was found in the toilet of a men's room. A men's room? We're all for equal opportunity, but seriously — pink? They come in so many more, uh, manly colors (we'll let you Google that for yourself, thanks). As you'd expect, the find set off quite the junior high-ish reaction: "Police officers, janitors, security guards and plenty of others have been peering into the can all day to catch a glimpse of the device," Stiles wrote. "My office is nearby, and I've heard nothing but giggles." Well, since Shelley left, we guess the folks at City Hall have to get their laughs somewhere.

(The hidden sex toy wasn't the only thing going on at City Hall yesterday: A test of water in drinking fountains found a smelly, but non-harmful, bacteria that caused building officials to warn folks in City Hall not to drink from the fountains. Kinda nasty, yeah, but we bet the City Hall workers would rather have smelly water than the flaming elevator motors their HPD brethren have to deal with.)