the toilet collapsed

Mr. Yiu, my oboe mentor, rang and mentioned briefly how his toilet had collapsed, leaving his family in despair. they had to move out and stay temporarily in a hotel. he also said something about things falling from the ceiling (??). he obviously was in an extreme state of tension, which interfered with his speech, when he asked for my help in borrowing a certain sheet music from the university library, which he would need the very next day. the collapsed toilet gave rise to a mini flood over an area of about 600 sq. feet. i can imagine how his music scores were destroyed in such an unfortunate disaster, pages printed with notes from the hands of these beloved composers floating alongside some brownish substance of a much more disgusting and revolting nature. then he walked on bare feet in the filthy water gathering what could still be gathered......

the idea of a "collapsed toilet" is a strange one to me, i must admit. it is simply not right; it is logically and semantically incoherent. perhaps what he meant was a collapsed bathroom? it makes more sense. we do not distinguish between "bathroom" and "toilet" in our language. a toilet practically is a hole. how can a hole collapse? but maybe it can; a well can collapse too, or can it?.

if a whole bathroom collapses then it is no small thing. perhaps i would ring up Mr. Yiu and clarify with him what exactly did collapse.