Hitchens at his very best - he might have added that an expensive British public school is the supreme preparation for every Englishman´s enjoyment of the infinite pleasures of men´s lavatories let alone the cherished described double life.

Looking forward to the day Hitchens explains

why Americans insist on saying bathrooms wherever they travel when they mean common lavatories.

Lavatory means essentially the same thing as a bathroom- a place to clean yourself. Actually Americans tend to say "bathroom" for a private facility and "restroom" for public facilities. I would think restroom would be easier to complain about since we do wash but don't do much resting in there. We don't say W.C. I guess if you really want accuracy you could call it the "toilet" or "crapper" or "potty" which have a more directly attached meaning to the function but what in the world does "loo" mean? I think we Americans have a more legitimate complaint about that word ;- ).

..I'll grant you that 'bathroom' is weird, but why do the British say 'lavatories' (a place for washing?) when they really mean 'toilets?'

And then there's 'WC' (a water closet?), 'loo' (???) or 'bog' (????). Anything I've missed in the way of slang here?

;)