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Toilet Paper: A Brief and Sometimes Painful History
Gizmodo ^ | Mike Sacasas

Posted on 08/06/2012 4:07:09 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot

... Toilet paper has a history. Of course it has a history. But who thinks of it? Like George (Costanza), we take most of our technology for granted. Of course, we pay a lot of attention to certain technologies, usually the newest and most innovative. But we don't think too much about those other technologies that have become more or less part of our natural environment ....

Toilet paper, in case you're wondering, was in use in China as early as the fourteenth century and it was made in 2′ x 3′ sheets. Everywhere else, and in China before then, people made use of what their environment offered. Leaves, mussel shells, corncobs were among the more common options. The Romans (what have they ever done for us!) used a sponge attached to the end of a stick and dipped in salt water. And yes, as you may have heard, in certain cultures the left hand was employed in the task of scatological hygiene, and in these cultures the left hand retains a certain stigma to this day.

Until the late-nineteenth century, Americans opted for discarded reading material. It's not clear if this is why Americans still today often take reading material into the bathroom, or if the practice of reading on the toilet yielded a eureka moment subsequently. In any case, magazines, newspapers, and almanacs were all precursors to the toilet paper as we know it today. It has been claimed that the Sears and Roebuck catalog was also known as the "Rears and Sorebutt" catalog. The Farmer's Almanac even came with a hole punched in it so that it could be hung and the pages torn off with ease.

....

(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: toiletpaper
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To: Larry Lucido

Surely Sheryl Crow has perfected the 1 square method by now.


21 posted on 08/06/2012 4:51:25 PM PDT by taterjay
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To: Sir Napsalot

George was wrong;they got rid of the roll.


22 posted on 08/06/2012 4:53:18 PM PDT by TalBlack
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To: Sir Napsalot

George was wrong;they got rid of the roll.


23 posted on 08/06/2012 4:54:12 PM PDT by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: School of Rational Thought

no


24 posted on 08/06/2012 4:54:22 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: workerbee

And remember that the next time you watch a medieval movie where the hero chats up the leading lady as she’s troweling moss off of a rock. It went into those pouches on their belts and they weren’t collecting it to cook with.


25 posted on 08/06/2012 4:56:19 PM PDT by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: I see my hands

>>> I thought it ended too abruptly.

Most articles should be like this - short, (smart), makes the point, and fun to read.


26 posted on 08/06/2012 4:57:10 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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To: Sir Napsalot

A buddy of mine was engaged to a French babe. The engagement was broken off because he wouldn’t use the bidet after crapping.

We figured in the cultures where showers are not a daily thing, washing your arse (Pablo?) is considered polite.


27 posted on 08/06/2012 5:02:41 PM PDT by Rebelbase (The most transparent administration ever is clear as mud.)
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To: Amberdawn

“Lol! I leave you all with this link that I picked up from a fellow Freeper.
http://www.banterist.com/archivefiles/000348.html";

I have used a hole in the floor like that, in Italy. However, the writer left out another problem I had - the light was on a timer and it couldn’t be reached from the hole in the floor toilet. Before I went in, the person before me warned me the light was on a timer so don’t take long over the hole or I would be in pitch black, not able to see anything. Thank goodness I didn’t have to do “No. 2” so got out before the light went off.

I traveled around the world a good bit, and I kept a collection of toilet paper because it was so gross in every country but ours. After my first trip trying to use bad paper, I carried a roll of US toilet paper in my bag.


28 posted on 08/06/2012 5:03:32 PM PDT by Marcella (The power to tax is the power to destroy.)
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To: Amberdawn
Not just in China, we were ‘forced’ to use those on a tour in Switzerland.

Yeah, no kidding, Switzerland.

29 posted on 08/06/2012 5:05:11 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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To: F15Eagle

You don’t know how to use the three seashells??

Seriously, last year, we sprung for a bidet.

Warm seat in the winter, warm water, no more ‘post shower sh—’ issues, no more hemorrhoids or other discomforts, ...

I will never go back and I don’t know why everyone isn’t doing this. It’s about $500 on Amazon and worth every penny. We’re buying one for a relative for the holidays.


30 posted on 08/06/2012 5:05:20 PM PDT by Marie ("The last time Democrats gloated this hard after a health care victory, they lost 60 House seats.")
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To: Larry Lucido
It’s taken for granted until you don’t have a square to spare

I know what you mean...


31 posted on 08/06/2012 5:06:41 PM PDT by jy8z (From the next to last exit before the end of the internet.)
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To: Sir Napsalot; Revolting cat!; Slings and Arrows

Sheryl Crow figured out how to use only one sheet of TP per trip to the loo. Poke you finger through the center of a square, wipe, then clean the finger...

32 posted on 08/06/2012 5:07:45 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Eric Holder's NAACP rally against the voter ID laws required the press to bring govt issue photo ID.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

If I ever leave Thailand and move back to North America one thing I would really miss is the sprayer attached to every toilet where there is running water.

Wiping instead of or without washing now seems somewhat disgusting - same as if it was hands that were dirty, not bums. Who would be comfortable wiping feces or urine off one’s hands without the opportunity of washing first?


33 posted on 08/06/2012 5:08:51 PM PDT by expat1000
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To: listenhillary
Apparently, early production techniques managed to embed splinters in the paper.”

Eastern Europe (and elsewhere in Europe?) they still use tree bark and other coarser wood materials for TP. Best to bring your own favorite.

34 posted on 08/06/2012 5:11:37 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Eric Holder's NAACP rally against the voter ID laws required the press to bring govt issue photo ID.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Unnngh!


35 posted on 08/06/2012 5:17:22 PM PDT by RichInOC (Palin 2012: The Perfect Storm.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Dried corncobs was for the rough times, Sears and Roebuck catalog was for the good times.


36 posted on 08/06/2012 5:22:59 PM PDT by Sea Parrot (Once I was young, now I am old and the in between went way too fast)
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To: mamelukesabre

When down on the creek, stay away from Saw grass.


37 posted on 08/06/2012 5:26:05 PM PDT by Sea Parrot (Once I was young, now I am old and the in between went way too fast)
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To: School of Rational Thought

Nope, corncobs.


38 posted on 08/06/2012 5:28:23 PM PDT by Sea Parrot (Once I was young, now I am old and the in between went way too fast)
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To: Sea Parrot

As I remember, the only pages in the S&R catalogs that weren’t shiny were the ones in the index.


39 posted on 08/06/2012 6:03:07 PM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: raybbr

Hey, cool!
Chaucer!


40 posted on 08/06/2012 6:11:16 PM PDT by Adder (Da bro has GOT to go!)
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