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A Dry Look at Toilet Paper · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works
0:37
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, you'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
0:46
Speaker 1: and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry and
0:50
Speaker 1: we're about to get our hands dirty the How Toilet
0:53
Speaker 1: Paper Works episode dumb Dude. There were so many puns
0:59
Speaker 1: in this article. I was like driving in pain. I
1:02
Speaker 1: will say that this was a a draft of a
1:06
Speaker 1: future House to Works article. Yeah, I gathered so it
1:09
Speaker 1: hasn't been through the editing and a process, and I'm
1:11
Speaker 1: hoping and praying the editor will have some good, the
1:15
Speaker 1: good taste. To remove some of these euphemisms about poop. Yeah,
1:20
Speaker 1: because it's not necessary. No, you don't have to get
1:24
Speaker 1: hilarious about poop. It's hilarious on its own, sure, you know. Yeah,
1:31
Speaker 1: I like this one. By the way. Yeah, toilet paper
1:36
Speaker 1: has a pretty interesting history actually, And there's the one
1:40
Speaker 1: thing I didn't quite realize. It's pretty American actually toilet
1:46
Speaker 1: paper is if you go elsewhere in the world, people
1:50
Speaker 1: have different feelings about toilet paper than Americans do. You
1:54
Speaker 1: come back and you realize, like, wow, America really really
1:58
Speaker 1: loves its toilet paper. And you start to look at
2:01
Speaker 1: statistics and it really kind of comes home, like, for example, yeah,
2:07
Speaker 1: here's some editing that needs to happen. This guy's got
2:10
Speaker 1: some numbers wrong. But what I found, Yeah, what I
2:13
Speaker 1: found was that Americans spend something like six billion dollars
2:20
Speaker 1: on toilet paper every year. Yeah, it is about rolls
2:24
Speaker 1: per person, is that right? Yep? Per year? Um, and
2:28
Speaker 1: we do we do something like we go through something
2:32
Speaker 1: like thirty six and a half billion rolls of toilet
2:35
Speaker 1: paper each year in America. Thirty six and a half
2:38
Speaker 1: billion rolls of toilet paper every year. That is a
2:43
Speaker 1: lot of toilet paper, um, and we're we were not
2:48
Speaker 1: showing many signs of stopping. As a matter of fact,
2:51
Speaker 1: toilet paper is getting more expensive by the year. It's
2:53
Speaker 1: it's rising by about two in cost every year, and
2:58
Speaker 1: we we're saying give it to us. There's lots of
3:01
Speaker 1: theories that if toilet paper somehow became a luxury item, Um,
3:06
Speaker 1: Americans would just say, well, I have to buy this
3:09
Speaker 1: luxury item. I cannot live without toilet paper. Yeah, but
3:14
Speaker 1: it's because we love our toilet paper, and you don't
3:17
Speaker 1: think about it until you experience something other than toilet paper,
3:21
Speaker 1: which is usually a stream of water up your pot. Yes,
3:24
Speaker 1: and we've talked about this before, but for those of
3:27
Speaker 1: you who haven't heard our various statements on this, I
3:30
Speaker 1: want to officially go on record again saying that toilet
3:32
Speaker 1: paper is gross and disgusting and the idea of wiping
3:36
Speaker 1: poop from your butt with dry paper is counterintuitive. It
3:40
Speaker 1: makes no sense. And if you don't involve water in
3:43
Speaker 1: some way to the process, then you're doing it wrong. Huh,
3:48
Speaker 1: You're you're a communist. I'm a badatist. Yeah, so do
3:54
Speaker 1: you have one at home? Well, now I need to
3:56
Speaker 1: rehook it up. I bought one of the toilet ones
3:58
Speaker 1: because after I said that a couple of years ago,
4:00
Speaker 1: everyone was like, dude, here you go, sent me the
4:03
Speaker 1: link to the product. I bought one immediately and hooked
4:07
Speaker 1: it up. But um, we did some bathroom renovations and
4:11
Speaker 1: it is uh now somewhere in a bag in my
4:13
Speaker 1: house and I just need to find it and get
4:15
Speaker 1: it going again. So you have a bidday floating around
4:19
Speaker 1: your house in a bag somewhere. Yeah, what what kind
4:23
Speaker 1: is Is it? Like one that's like a toilet lid
4:26
Speaker 1: slash biday Uh, it's it. It fits under the lid
4:30
Speaker 1: and um squirts a jet of water to your butt.
4:36
Speaker 1: I've got one of those Japanese UM toilet seats that
4:39
Speaker 1: has a bidet and a dryer and everything, and really
4:42
Speaker 1: they're fantastic, buddy man. And they're not. I mean it's
4:46
Speaker 1: it's it's more expensive than a regular toilet seat, but
4:49
Speaker 1: there it's not so outrageously expensive that you know. Yeah,
4:54
Speaker 1: well you probably say some on toilet paper. I do
4:57
Speaker 1: a little bit. I mean toilet paper. You still need
4:59
Speaker 1: to at yourself dry you definitely do, although if you
5:02
Speaker 1: have a dryer, do you. Yeah, but you'd have to
5:05
Speaker 1: sit there for fifteen minutes to get So what's the problem.
5:10
Speaker 1: I remember there was a George Carlin album where he
5:14
Speaker 1: was talking about some game show contestant, and one of
5:17
Speaker 1: the one of the game show contestants hobbies was, um,
5:20
Speaker 1: sitting on the toilet till my legs go numb. That's
5:23
Speaker 1: so funny. The little things that stand out from your childhood. Yeah,
5:27
Speaker 1: like that's locked in there, but you probably don't remember
5:30
Speaker 1: something really important about your family, like multiplication. Oh yeah,
5:35
Speaker 1: we're schooling alright. So history of toilet paper, uh, man,
5:41
Speaker 1: like so many things. If you go back to ancient China,
5:44
Speaker 1: they were apparently future people because it seems like so
5:48
Speaker 1: many things, Um, the ancient Chinese people thought of and
5:54
Speaker 1: then it just sort of went away for a thousand years.
5:56
Speaker 1: Well they they invented paper, right, so if you're making
6:01
Speaker 1: paper and you're pooping, eventually you're gonna put the two together, like, oh,
6:06
Speaker 1: I'll just use this because at the time, or prior
6:08
Speaker 1: to this, all around the world basically humans used whatever
6:12
Speaker 1: was handy, like leaves. Moss was very popular for men.
6:18
Speaker 1: Uh leaves not bad, Yeah, moss, I would say a
6:21
Speaker 1: little messy but softish beat moss is the bomb, especially
6:25
Speaker 1: if it's fresh. It says on here coconuts, I don't
6:28
Speaker 1: even know where to start with that. Yeah, I guess
6:31
Speaker 1: if you went with the grain it would be okay.
6:35
Speaker 1: But you I'm sure it's not like a whole coconut.
6:38
Speaker 1: You're using like a part of a shell or something
6:40
Speaker 1: like a shard. Yeah, don't say shard in that area.
6:43
Speaker 1: That's but I think a coconut shell, the outer shell
6:47
Speaker 1: would be at least like it would probably do the job,
6:50
Speaker 1: you know, right, it's kind of rough, right, it says shells.
6:55
Speaker 1: Yeah that if you live near the coast, you could
6:58
Speaker 1: use shells. And there's definitely only some kind of mollusks
7:02
Speaker 1: that would be better than others. I saw somebody point
7:05
Speaker 1: out that there's such a thing as razor clams. Yeah,
7:08
Speaker 1: I know what a razor clam has. Not want to
7:09
Speaker 1: use that? Uh Snow, you're definitely on the right track
7:13
Speaker 1: with that. Corn cobs huge, huge in America. I think
7:18
Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense. Sure, it's got like
7:20
Speaker 1: the kind of rough bits, but it's can turn it
7:24
Speaker 1: about perfectly shaped, continually turn it and you get you know,
7:30
Speaker 1: new coverage. Or whatever. Yeah, the only thing like the
7:32
Speaker 1: corn cob. Using a corn cob is that you have
7:35
Speaker 1: to like, um, play banjo music in your head while
7:38
Speaker 1: you're using it. It's the only way to do it.
7:41
Speaker 1: Sheep's wool not bad. No, And uh, if you were
7:46
Speaker 1: a rich type frenchie from the Renaissance on, you would
7:51
Speaker 1: probably use lace. Lace. I saw that, and that, Uh,
7:56
Speaker 1: that doesn't make any sense because lace is full of holes.
7:59
Speaker 1: That seems so French royalty, like I'll only wipe my
8:03
Speaker 1: bottom with handmade lace, right. And I think also if
8:06
Speaker 1: you were royalty, you weren't actually the one doing your
8:09
Speaker 1: your own bottom, like for example, um, King Henry the Eighth,
8:13
Speaker 1: who I know wasn't French, he had a position called
8:17
Speaker 1: the groom of the stool. That wasn't just him. No,
8:20
Speaker 1: So I think if you were super rich, you had
8:23
Speaker 1: people wipe for you, which is now the only time
8:25
Speaker 1: you do that is if you've broken both of your arms.
8:28
Speaker 1: Where here here's the deal. I looked up groom of
8:30
Speaker 1: the stool because that immediately piqued my interests. First of all,
8:34
Speaker 1: they're not talking about a stools in poop. They're talking
8:37
Speaker 1: about like a stool sample. No, it means like this
8:42
Speaker 1: portable commode that looked like a stool that they would
8:45
Speaker 1: carry around. I wonder if that's where the term for
8:48
Speaker 1: poop stool came from. That I don't know, let's just
8:51
Speaker 1: say yes, okay. I also found that and this was
8:57
Speaker 1: a position that all of royalty held, like it was
9:01
Speaker 1: he He was not the only one. They're all all
9:03
Speaker 1: the kings had them in queens and dukes and duchesses.
9:06
Speaker 1: But they were their very closest helpers obviously, But apparently
9:11
Speaker 1: they didn't actually help them wipe. Um. They would help
9:14
Speaker 1: them undress, for sure, they would be in charge of
9:17
Speaker 1: the commode upkeep, and apparently they would um just kind
9:23
Speaker 1: of track their meal schedule and dietary goings on, like
9:28
Speaker 1: what goes in and what comes out. But I didn't
9:31
Speaker 1: see anywhere where they actually like wiped their butts for them.
9:34
Speaker 1: I see you've pastor beans. It is Tuesday. Uh. Most
9:43
Speaker 1: of them were nights and King George the third Matt.
9:47
Speaker 1: King George actually had a groom of the stool. John
9:52
Speaker 1: Stewart with you, a RT who eventually became Prime Minister
9:56
Speaker 1: of England. Wow, how about that man? Thank you for
9:59
Speaker 1: bringing us up to date because I was grossly misled
10:02
Speaker 1: by this how stuff works article. Well, yeah, it sounds like,
10:05
Speaker 1: wipe your butt for you. I failed to do the
10:08
Speaker 1: proper outside research, so thank you for saving me and
10:11
Speaker 1: shaming me at the same time. Well, that sounds like
10:14
Speaker 1: I don't blame you. Probably read groom in the stool
10:16
Speaker 1: and you're like, Yep, don't need to know anything more
10:17
Speaker 1: about that. No, but I should have known better. You know,
10:20
Speaker 1: I've been doing this for years. I'm supposed to be professional,
10:24
Speaker 1: all right. Ancient Greeks used clay and stone, and the Romans,
10:27
Speaker 1: they were on the right track. They used like a
10:30
Speaker 1: sponge on a stick which was wet and that they
10:33
Speaker 1: would then clean with saltwater. Yeah. Well, actually taking it
10:37
Speaker 1: back a second, the Greek's actually used polished bits of stone. Yeah,
10:43
Speaker 1: puss pussy. And then there was also something called um
10:48
Speaker 1: I think a stroiky oh stroiky um, and that was
10:52
Speaker 1: where if you would um, if the town was voting
10:56
Speaker 1: on like kicking somebody out, they would have there be
11:01
Speaker 1: these like bits of ceramic with the person's name engraved
11:04
Speaker 1: on it and they just throw it into this pot
11:07
Speaker 1: or whatever. Well, to really show your disdain for somebody,
11:10
Speaker 1: you could use one of these astroy kys um as
11:15
Speaker 1: a stone for wiping yourself. You're wiping yourself with the
11:19
Speaker 1: person's name, which is about as bad as it gets.
11:23
Speaker 1: But that's where the word ostracize comes from because it
11:26
Speaker 1: sounds like an Australian like exclamation astro y. People get
11:31
Speaker 1: the point. Um. People are using whatever they can to
11:35
Speaker 1: wipe their butts like it's an issue. Things get messy
11:39
Speaker 1: since the dawn of time took took. It was like,
11:42
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't feel good to walk around after
11:45
Speaker 1: a poop if I haven't cleaned myself. So it was
11:48
Speaker 1: an issue. And let's fast forward in time two uh seven,
11:56
Speaker 1: this is where it's starting to get good. In New
11:58
Speaker 1: York City. Uh, there was a man named Joseph Gaietti
12:03
Speaker 1: and he invented something called Gayeties Medicated paper sheets yep.
12:08
Speaker 1: And they were it was toilet paper, but it was
12:11
Speaker 1: not yet on a roll. They were more like a
12:13
Speaker 1: tissue that you would put pull out of a box
12:15
Speaker 1: like Kleenex. Yeah. They were like, if you want a
12:18
Speaker 1: brand name, Buzzet, that's fine. Proprietary him, uh about fifty
12:23
Speaker 1: cents for five sheets, and he was so proud. He
12:25
Speaker 1: had his name printed on them. But I didn't think
12:27
Speaker 1: that through. Um but here's the deal. You had a
12:30
Speaker 1: hard time selling it because at the time, and this
12:33
Speaker 1: is no joke, Americans used literally used the Farmer's Almanac
12:39
Speaker 1: and the Sears Catalog to wipe their butts. Yeah. As
12:42
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, both of them I think came
12:44
Speaker 1: with a hole punched in like the top corner to
12:48
Speaker 1: make it easier just hang from a nail in your outhouse. Azing.
12:52
Speaker 1: So that was definitely one reason why Gaiety's medicated paper
12:56
Speaker 1: didn't take off. But another part of it was that
12:59
Speaker 1: this is like a boo thing, right. You got the
13:02
Speaker 1: Sears robut catalog and the mail. It served a couple
13:05
Speaker 1: of purposes, one of which was unspoken, right, Yeah, like
13:10
Speaker 1: the mail. The mail delivery guy would just walk up
13:12
Speaker 1: and just like kind of hand it to the person
13:14
Speaker 1: and say, here's your catalog. Thanks, wink wink nudge. Just
13:19
Speaker 1: should last year a couple of months, alright. I was
13:22
Speaker 1: wondering how long it would last. I mean, like, these
13:24
Speaker 1: things were a couple of hundred pages, Um, so I
13:28
Speaker 1: wonder how long it would last. But yes, most especially
13:32
Speaker 1: in rural America, that was toilet paper. That in corn cops.
13:35
Speaker 1: I wonder if there are are arguments to broke out
13:37
Speaker 1: in families like ma, it's winter and we're already to
13:41
Speaker 1: the tool section. Yeah, your own. I'm sure there's always
13:46
Speaker 1: been miserly jerks who yelled about using too much toilet paper. Um.
13:52
Speaker 1: So that was one reason that that gaiety had trouble
13:55
Speaker 1: with his medicated paper. Right. Another part was that the
14:00
Speaker 1: abou right, no one wanted to talk about that, um,
14:03
Speaker 1: and he actually sold his thing as like medicine. It
14:07
Speaker 1: was meant to be u for the prevention or treatment
14:10
Speaker 1: of hemorrhoids, right, which obviously that would help, and it was.
14:14
Speaker 1: It was very much what we would consider the first
14:16
Speaker 1: toilet paper, but um, it didn't take off. It wasn't
14:20
Speaker 1: until about thirty or forty years later that Clarence and
14:24
Speaker 1: e Irvin Scott Scott brothers whose name still appears on
14:28
Speaker 1: toilet paper rolls, got together and actually created the first
14:32
Speaker 1: toilet paper on a roll. Yeah. That changed everything, it
14:36
Speaker 1: really did. But apparently the shame, the stigma of of
14:41
Speaker 1: creating toilet paper was so much that they released their
14:45
Speaker 1: product in It wasn't until nineteen o two that they
14:48
Speaker 1: finally acknowledged that it was there their product. Yeah, they
14:54
Speaker 1: were just a shame. Yeah. Uh, they didn't have to
14:57
Speaker 1: put their name on it, I mean no. And apparently
14:59
Speaker 1: they use some of the companies that their company owned
15:02
Speaker 1: to under Yeah. They really were like trying to to
15:06
Speaker 1: put some distance in between them and the toilet paper
15:09
Speaker 1: they created. Yeah, I get it. They did manage to
15:11
Speaker 1: sell a lot of it though, because they were smart
15:15
Speaker 1: enough to market it to like hotels and drug stores
15:19
Speaker 1: and stuff, and so they sold a lot of it,
15:21
Speaker 1: not like direct to customer, right, and they said, you
15:25
Speaker 1: know your hotel needs this. Trust me, no one wants
15:27
Speaker 1: to talk about it, but just put these in your
15:29
Speaker 1: bathrooms and everyone will say great. And and again, like
15:32
Speaker 1: it was. It worked kind of well. But then, um,
15:37
Speaker 1: toilet paper as a as we understand it today, really
15:41
Speaker 1: didn't become like a staple what what you would call
15:44
Speaker 1: an icon of American culture, frankly, until like three things
15:48
Speaker 1: happened from about the beginning of the twentieth century until
15:52
Speaker 1: about the nineteen thirties, right. And one of the first
15:55
Speaker 1: things was that America started getting indoor plumbing flushing toilets.
16:00
Speaker 1: That deal. I think it was because you can't use
16:04
Speaker 1: corn cobs in that any longer. So this is largely
16:08
Speaker 1: in the city's um where where you would find indoor plumbing.
16:11
Speaker 1: Still in rural America, up to the thirties, people were
16:15
Speaker 1: still using corn cobs in the Sears and Robot catalog.
16:18
Speaker 1: That's when the second thing that that took place that
16:20
Speaker 1: changed everything happened. The Sears catalog went to a clay
16:24
Speaker 1: based glossy paper and no longer was it soft and
16:28
Speaker 1: absorbent any longer. It was slick and you you can't
16:32
Speaker 1: use that to wipe your bottom after pooping. That was
16:36
Speaker 1: the second thing that happened. And lastly, the third thing
16:38
Speaker 1: that happened was um a company called the was it
16:43
Speaker 1: the Hubert Hubert Paper Company Hoberg Paper Company released a
16:50
Speaker 1: brand of toilet paper called Sharman, and they very very
16:55
Speaker 1: wisely branded it in such a way that this focused
16:59
Speaker 1: on it's femininity, it's softness, it's gentleness, and you could
17:04
Speaker 1: talk about how soft and gentle and wonderful this product
17:06
Speaker 1: was without talking about what it was actually used for,
17:10
Speaker 1: which meant that now you could market it to the public.
17:12
Speaker 1: And as a result, Charman took off. Yeah, I mean
17:16
Speaker 1: that that's sort of became the name in toilet paper
17:19
Speaker 1: for many years, uh, in no small part thanks to
17:22
Speaker 1: a man named Dick Wilson, who, from nineteen six to
17:25
Speaker 1: eighty five and more than five hundred TV commercials played
17:30
Speaker 1: the beloved Mr. Whipple George Whipple grocery store manager, who
17:34
Speaker 1: very famously would urge usually women in the commercials not
17:39
Speaker 1: to squeeze the charmon because apparently, from sixty four to
17:44
Speaker 1: eighty five, women and grocery stores were compelled to squeeze
17:48
Speaker 1: toilet paper yeah constantly, always feels so nice and soft,
17:53
Speaker 1: which apparently did something wrong to the toilet paper. Well, yeah,
17:56
Speaker 1: you didn't want your toilet paper, that's who You bought
18:00
Speaker 1: a toilet paper for yourself so you could squeeze in
18:03
Speaker 1: the comfort of your own home. So at exact, John
18:06
Speaker 1: schure Focus actually came up with that tagline um or phrase,
18:11
Speaker 1: and the actor's original name was Ricardo the Googliemo. The
18:16
Speaker 1: Googlielmo from from England. That did not anticipate that. I
18:21
Speaker 1: thought it was gonna say Rome, Italy. Another little known
18:24
Speaker 1: fact about Dick Wilson is that he is the father
18:28
Speaker 1: of Stephanie Balki's love interest in Perfect Strangers in real life. Yeah,
18:33
Speaker 1: that's his daughter. And another factoid is, uh, he was
18:39
Speaker 1: in Bewitch, the TV show. Yeah, he played the drunk
18:42
Speaker 1: that you'd see at the bar who just couldn't believe
18:45
Speaker 1: the witchery he had just seen, Mr Whipple. Uh so
18:49
Speaker 1: did you say that he was in more than five
18:51
Speaker 1: hundred of those Sharman ads, Um, there was a point
18:55
Speaker 1: where he was. There was a pole that was taken
18:57
Speaker 1: in and found on that in America, he was the
19:02
Speaker 1: third most recognized person by Americans after Richard Nixon and
19:05
Speaker 1: Billy Graham. That's so America. That is a home run
19:09
Speaker 1: for an ad AD agency. That's just so America. The president,
19:14
Speaker 1: a preacher, and a toilet paper guy. Mr Whipple, I
19:18
Speaker 1: love it. Do you want to take a break, Yeah,
19:21
Speaker 1: we'll take a break in. Um kind of bring us
19:24
Speaker 1: into the modern age of butt wiping. All right. So
19:47
Speaker 1: we're at a point now where Sharman has uh, well
19:52
Speaker 1: before that, uh, we were at a point where toilet
19:55
Speaker 1: paper was now being championed by plumbers by doctors as
20:00
Speaker 1: being a good thing. Sharman comes along said, man, this
20:03
Speaker 1: stuff is soft and don't squeeze it though, But boy,
20:06
Speaker 1: I know you want to Johnny Carson's joking about it
20:09
Speaker 1: on the Tonight Show. Yeah, that was that was kind
20:12
Speaker 1: of a significant thing. Yeah, he said that there was
20:14
Speaker 1: And this was uh in nineteen seventy three when there
20:17
Speaker 1: were like gas shortages and energy shortages, and Johnny Carson
20:22
Speaker 1: made a joke about their being a toilet paper shortage,
20:25
Speaker 1: and people thought he was serious and apparently went out
20:28
Speaker 1: and like bought out grocery stores the next day. Yeah,
20:30
Speaker 1: and it was a self sustaining um. Yeah, when people
20:35
Speaker 1: when people ran out and bought it, it it created the shortage.
20:37
Speaker 1: And then the successive waves of people came and saw
20:40
Speaker 1: for themselves that there was no toilet paper, so they
20:42
Speaker 1: panicked and they bought whatever they could, and apparently for
20:45
Speaker 1: weeks in some places there there was you couldn't find
20:48
Speaker 1: you couldn't buy toilet paper because it had been hoarded
20:51
Speaker 1: because of Johnny Carson's joke. Man, and he took it back.
20:55
Speaker 1: But you know, back in those days, it takes little
20:57
Speaker 1: while for people to get that information. Sure you been
21:00
Speaker 1: on the Tonight Show, that's right. So, um, this one
21:04
Speaker 1: article you sent was great, the history one, which one
21:09
Speaker 1: you're said kind of the longer one. Oh the I
21:12
Speaker 1: think it was a Mental Floss article. What absolutely was?
21:14
Speaker 1: You're right, so I always love to use mental floss articles.
21:18
Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, we would be remiss if
21:21
Speaker 1: we didn't mention that Will and Mangus, who started Mental
21:24
Speaker 1: Floss are colleagues. Now, yeah they are. They have a
21:27
Speaker 1: podcast called Part Time Genius that's put out by our
21:31
Speaker 1: venerable umbrella brand company. That's right. And I made a
21:35
Speaker 1: guest appearance, and I think you're probably in the queue
21:37
Speaker 1: as well. Uh. Yeah, I have not been approached, but
21:41
Speaker 1: I just assume I thank you. I think so, let's hope.
21:45
Speaker 1: So But anyway, congratulations to Will and Mango for Part
21:48
Speaker 1: Time Genius and go check it out. You cannot find
21:50
Speaker 1: it anywhere you find us stuff you should know. Yeah,
21:54
Speaker 1: so anyway, Uh, they made a pretty good point here
21:58
Speaker 1: at the end of it, which I never really consider dared.
22:00
Speaker 1: But toilet paper is actually sort of a marker of
22:05
Speaker 1: where you are as a country. Uh, Like developing nations.
22:09
Speaker 1: When they start buying more toilet paper, that means they
22:13
Speaker 1: are getting more sanitary as a nation, means they have
22:16
Speaker 1: extra money to spend as a nation. Uh, that means
22:20
Speaker 1: that they're basically just sort of ah, their demographics are
22:25
Speaker 1: changing in a positive direction. Speaking from a neoliberal standpoint,
22:29
Speaker 1: that is correct, right, Yeah, but it's interesting and ever
22:33
Speaker 1: thought about it. Like Brazil they've doubled the amount of
22:36
Speaker 1: toilet paper they've sold since two thousand four, Yeah, which
22:39
Speaker 1: is pretty significant considering, um, American toilet paper has plateaued,
22:44
Speaker 1: like we buy as much as we we possibly can.
22:47
Speaker 1: Were saturated, but I mean we're still spending six billion
22:50
Speaker 1: on it, you know. Yeah, and all over the world
22:53
Speaker 1: there are I mean, you know, when we went to Guatemala,
22:56
Speaker 1: we certainly saw the bucket, uh and the wall here
23:00
Speaker 1: next to the toilets. There are still many places all
23:03
Speaker 1: over the world where you clean yourself with whatever water
23:08
Speaker 1: you have, and you and if you do have something
23:10
Speaker 1: to wipe yourself with, you don't even flush it down
23:12
Speaker 1: the toilet. You you know, you have a little water
23:15
Speaker 1: hose in a bucket maybe and kind of take care
23:17
Speaker 1: of business right or with There are some places, um
23:23
Speaker 1: where the plumbing just can't even handle actual toilet paper.
23:26
Speaker 1: You just throw that away as well. Yeah, you want
23:30
Speaker 1: to talk about how toilet papers made? Yeah, I mean
23:34
Speaker 1: we can talk about it for sure, but I strongly
23:36
Speaker 1: encourage everyone to go uh to YouTube and watch a
23:40
Speaker 1: little six minute Discovery Channel bit from I think it
23:44
Speaker 1: was from How It's Made Canadian How It's Made? Oh,
23:47
Speaker 1: is that what it was? The lady just stopped short
23:49
Speaker 1: of saying, hey, I did kind of notice that. Yeah.
23:53
Speaker 1: It's amazing though, And I know I can obsessively watch
23:57
Speaker 1: manufacturing videos like all day and all night, but this
24:01
Speaker 1: one was especially cool looking. Chuck, did you get the
24:04
Speaker 1: same sense where like you were just watching those huge
24:07
Speaker 1: rolls of toilet paper going over the rollers and just
24:09
Speaker 1: think like that is so delicate, Like all you have
24:11
Speaker 1: to do is lift your hand up and just completely
24:13
Speaker 1: throw production off. It was just I didn't feel like
24:17
Speaker 1: I wanted to do that, but I kept wondering, like,
24:20
Speaker 1: how in the world are these machines just rolling this
24:23
Speaker 1: toilet paper so fast without breaking? Yeah, it's it's pretty impressive.
24:29
Speaker 1: So let's start at the beginning. The whole thing starts
24:32
Speaker 1: with a tree. Go out in your backyard, you cut
24:35
Speaker 1: down a tree, You take it to the toilet paper manufacturer,
24:38
Speaker 1: and you sell it to them for a few dollars,
24:40
Speaker 1: and then you leave. And since you've left, it's not
24:44
Speaker 1: your tree any longer because you took money for it.
24:47
Speaker 1: And what the toilet paper manufacturers are gonna do with
24:50
Speaker 1: what's now their tree, They're gonna grind it up into
24:53
Speaker 1: little chips. They're gonna soak it in some water. They're
24:57
Speaker 1: gonna grind it up even more. And what you had
25:00
Speaker 1: have are um called pulp. Well, you gotta cook it first.
25:03
Speaker 1: You gotta cook it in a what's called a digester,
25:07
Speaker 1: and that turns it into pulp. Yeah. And if you
25:10
Speaker 1: look at this video, it's like it looks I mean,
25:13
Speaker 1: it kind of looks like wet toilet paper. Yeah, that's
25:16
Speaker 1: exactly what it looks like. And it but when it's dried,
25:18
Speaker 1: it crumbles really easily too, right, So um, that means
25:22
Speaker 1: you've got a few extra steps. The next step is
25:25
Speaker 1: you gotta bleach it because you're removing the color. If
25:28
Speaker 1: you've ever seen like, um, that kind of grayish tan
25:33
Speaker 1: like um, like paper towels or something that you see
25:36
Speaker 1: in like an office building or jail or something like that,
25:39
Speaker 1: like that is what pulp looks like if you don't
25:42
Speaker 1: bleach it. Yeah, which I think the only reason they
25:46
Speaker 1: do that is because they found that people don't like
25:49
Speaker 1: their toilet paper to be anything other than white unless
25:52
Speaker 1: it's Yeah, man, I've got to say. I found this
25:56
Speaker 1: um blog post from a site called History's Dumpster, and
26:00
Speaker 1: they have pictures of Northern brand toilet paper and light green,
26:05
Speaker 1: light blue and pink, and it was just like remember
26:09
Speaker 1: swallow my tongue from nostalgia. It was very cute. Yeah. Well,
26:14
Speaker 1: and I guess we should go ahead and say the
26:15
Speaker 1: reason they don't do that anymore is because, um, those
26:19
Speaker 1: inc dies they found good cause cancer in some cases. Uh,
26:23
Speaker 1: they are expensive, more expensive to use dies. Uh. And yeah,
26:28
Speaker 1: it was basically a health thing. People like you don't
26:31
Speaker 1: need these plus and also the dies also kept m
26:35
Speaker 1: the toilet paper from breaking down as quickly too. Yeah.
26:38
Speaker 1: And they probably also looked and said, you know what,
26:40
Speaker 1: my poop doesn't look any better on baby blue than
26:42
Speaker 1: it does on white. No. But the the whole reason
26:47
Speaker 1: that they had those is because everybody loved to um
26:50
Speaker 1: color coordinate every room of their house in the seventies,
26:53
Speaker 1: including the bathroom. Everything in the bathroom is bank so
26:57
Speaker 1: people would people would buy mauve toilet paper to go
27:01
Speaker 1: with their mauve bathroom or whatever. It is great, it was.
27:05
Speaker 1: That's so super seventies too, And that's just yet another
27:08
Speaker 1: reason that the seventies were hands down the greatest decade
27:11
Speaker 1: in the history of Humanity's pretty great. So one other thing, Chuck,
27:16
Speaker 1: there's a company called Renova and they actually sell colored
27:19
Speaker 1: toilet paper again. Oh really Yeah, it's like seven seven
27:24
Speaker 1: euros and fifteen cents, which isn't that much less than
27:29
Speaker 1: it would be in dollars these days for six rolls. Okay,
27:33
Speaker 1: so we're in the factory. Where do you leave this? Uh?
27:38
Speaker 1: So we've made the pulp and we've bleached it. Now
27:41
Speaker 1: it's white. Then you take the pulp and you mix
27:44
Speaker 1: it with water and you've created a paper stock. That's right,
27:49
Speaker 1: and then you press it onto a screen. This one
27:51
Speaker 1: was this blew me away. Yeah, they pressed it onto
27:55
Speaker 1: a screen. I guess you're you're draining a lot of
27:56
Speaker 1: the water. Uh's one reason? And well I guess that's
28:01
Speaker 1: the main reason, because what you're left with is that
28:03
Speaker 1: dry white product. Yeah. That that lady, the Canadian lady
28:07
Speaker 1: on how it's made, said that they hit them with
28:10
Speaker 1: a dryer when they're on that screen and it instantly
28:13
Speaker 1: drives it out. That's just amazing because you think of
28:17
Speaker 1: this stuff is so delicate that but they if you
28:19
Speaker 1: watch the process that they're they're pretty rough with it. Yeah.
28:24
Speaker 1: So then well, concurrently, what's going on to we should
28:27
Speaker 1: say is they're also making the the cardboard rolls, which
28:32
Speaker 1: is kind of the tubes, you know, which is kind
28:34
Speaker 1: of neat to watch that happen on its own. They
28:37
Speaker 1: just make this one long, continuous tube that they cut
28:41
Speaker 1: into like sixty in It probably depends on you know
28:45
Speaker 1: which company, but the one they feature, I think we're
28:47
Speaker 1: sixty inch tubes, which would then roll toilet paper around,
28:53
Speaker 1: so you would have basically a sixty inch roll giant
28:58
Speaker 1: roll of TP, right, which looks really neat, and then
29:03
Speaker 1: they glue it. That is definitely glue that they used
29:05
Speaker 1: to keep it, uh you know, not tucked, but affixed
29:10
Speaker 1: a fixed thank you, so it doesn't unravel. Yeah, like
29:14
Speaker 1: when you when you rip that toilet paper off at
29:16
Speaker 1: the very beginning, that that's a glue that's holding it together, right,
29:19
Speaker 1: And then they have these circular saws that come through
29:22
Speaker 1: and just cut that that big long roll into several
29:25
Speaker 1: small rolls. That was the coolest part, it was. And
29:27
Speaker 1: then um, they can be individually wrapped or put in
29:30
Speaker 1: packs of like four or six or a million UM
29:33
Speaker 1: and then you sell them. It's it is a very
29:36
Speaker 1: cool short video. I could watch that stuff forever. So
29:41
Speaker 1: that's if you're making it UM from scratch. There's also
29:44
Speaker 1: recycled toilet paper, which isn't quite as popular here in
29:48
Speaker 1: the United States because it's a little coarser, the fibers
29:52
Speaker 1: are a little longer with with toilet paper. The shorter
29:55
Speaker 1: the fiber, the softer the toilet paper is going to
29:58
Speaker 1: be UM. And then they also add some proprietary chemical
30:02
Speaker 1: combinations UM that include like extruders that kind of pull
30:07
Speaker 1: the fibers out of like a horizontal position and just
30:10
Speaker 1: kind of tough them a little bit. Uh. And then
30:13
Speaker 1: they'll put in like emboss and stuff like that too,
30:15
Speaker 1: which kind of gives a quilted feel. So all of
30:19
Speaker 1: that is to make it softer and to make it
30:21
Speaker 1: um more grabby grabs the poop right out of your bottom. Yeah,
30:25
Speaker 1: And those fibers is sort of a balance. They're a
30:28
Speaker 1: delicate balance. They're walking because they want it to be soft,
30:31
Speaker 1: but they also want it to be strong enough because
30:34
Speaker 1: if it's too flimsy, like the junk. You get it. Uh,
30:37
Speaker 1: you know public restrooms and your office probably you know
30:41
Speaker 1: that everyone probably has a nightmare story about their fingers
30:44
Speaker 1: busting through that stuff, which is worst case scenario, uh
30:49
Speaker 1: when it's clean up time. So they're trying to basically
30:53
Speaker 1: walk that balance of soft and strong, right, And one
30:57
Speaker 1: way they've done that is to add more um layers applies.
31:03
Speaker 1: So apparently it's up to six plies. I didn't know that.
31:07
Speaker 1: I didn't either. I can't imagine you could. You couldn't
31:10
Speaker 1: even fold that. Yeah, what does that feel like? I
31:12
Speaker 1: wonder I'm probably a cloud. You're just wiping your bottom
31:16
Speaker 1: with a cloud. And that In ninety two that started
31:19
Speaker 1: as St Andrew. St Andrew's paper Mill in England invented
31:23
Speaker 1: the two ply. Uh and I didn't know. This is
31:27
Speaker 1: another nice little tidbit um Until the nineteen thirties they
31:32
Speaker 1: would market toilet paper as splinter free like that. They
31:36
Speaker 1: would they were forced to, right because apparently that was
31:40
Speaker 1: a thing. So, um, that's kind of that's where I
31:43
Speaker 1: was going with recycled toilet paper. It's kind of the
31:46
Speaker 1: new splinter splintery toilet paper, which I mean compared to
31:51
Speaker 1: the toilet papers of your recycled toilet papers just completely luxurious.
31:57
Speaker 1: But compared to actually like six ply super soft stuff
32:01
Speaker 1: that you can get, it is a little rough. Um.
32:03
Speaker 1: And again the reason why is the fibers are a
32:05
Speaker 1: little longer. And it follows the same process, but there's
32:08
Speaker 1: a step at the beginning where you take all these
32:10
Speaker 1: different papers and you put them in and mash them
32:13
Speaker 1: together in some water and you inject some air and
32:17
Speaker 1: it creates foam and the ink and the paper sticks
32:21
Speaker 1: to the foam and the foam floats, so then they
32:24
Speaker 1: just skim the foam off the top and you just
32:26
Speaker 1: remove the ink and then you start the rest of
32:28
Speaker 1: the process making a pulp. Again, what a world. It
32:32
Speaker 1: is pretty amazing. All right, let's take another break and
32:35
Speaker 1: we're gonna come back and wrap it up with some
32:38
Speaker 1: more amazing facts about t P. Another thing we forgot
33:02
Speaker 1: to mention before we broke was the you said that
33:04
Speaker 1: the embosed ones right like with the whatever, the scallop
33:09
Speaker 1: shell or whatever you find um, they say that. Another
33:13
Speaker 1: reason they do that is just so they know that
33:15
Speaker 1: that's their toilet paper, just to differentiate themselves from other brands.
33:20
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I never really thought about that. Yeah, but
33:22
Speaker 1: Scott's like, Noah, that's ours. You can see the scalop
33:25
Speaker 1: shell right there. Yeah. Although I don't know what there's is,
33:30
Speaker 1: there was definitely scalloping in that. Um how it's made video? Yeah?
33:38
Speaker 1: Uh all right, So can we talk about the over
33:41
Speaker 1: or under thing? Yes? So everybody's seen that Simpsons where
33:46
Speaker 1: margin Homer go to the spa for a day and
33:49
Speaker 1: Child Protective Services ends up coming by and they write
33:52
Speaker 1: a report and they call the Simpsons house a squalid
33:56
Speaker 1: hell hole point out that the toilet paper is hung
34:00
Speaker 1: in an improper overhand fashion. Um. So apparently, I'm not
34:05
Speaker 1: sure who wrote that episode weighed in on that, but
34:09
Speaker 1: they're in the minority because apparently only do the underhang.
34:14
Speaker 1: I'm a definite overhanged person. What about you? I'm an
34:17
Speaker 1: overhanger for sure. Um apparently. And I remember seeing this
34:22
Speaker 1: online a few years ago. It kind of went around
34:26
Speaker 1: that was a guy named Seth Wheeler of Albany Perforated
34:31
Speaker 1: Wrapping Paper Company submitted a patent for the first perforated
34:35
Speaker 1: toilet paper on a roll and that showed the the
34:39
Speaker 1: over position and everyone was like, but it said it's subtle.
34:42
Speaker 1: This was the first one that's how it was supposed
34:44
Speaker 1: to be, which really proved nothing. No, I mean, it's
34:49
Speaker 1: still preference. But there are definite pros and cons of
34:52
Speaker 1: the whole thing, right, Yeah, But here's the thing for me,
34:54
Speaker 1: it's a lot of the pro of the pros they
34:56
Speaker 1: list as UM, like your little kid or your dog
35:00
Speaker 1: won't be tempted to go yanket if it's UM in
35:03
Speaker 1: the under position, right, presumably because it's hidden. No, because
35:11
Speaker 1: it's so if you're a little kid or a doggie
35:14
Speaker 1: and you come up, if you if it's in an
35:16
Speaker 1: overhand fashion, if it's overhanging, you can just come up
35:20
Speaker 1: and start slapping downward on the toilet paper roll and
35:23
Speaker 1: it will just come right offhang. You know, it just stays.
35:28
Speaker 1: It just flips around and stays together. Yes, it does.
35:33
Speaker 1: You have to pull downward on the toilet paper if
35:36
Speaker 1: it's going from an underhang to get it off the roll.
35:41
Speaker 1: If you slap downward on the front top of the
35:44
Speaker 1: toilet paper roll, that that it's never gonna come loose.
35:47
Speaker 1: To see, trifical force holds it in place. I think
35:50
Speaker 1: I disagree on this notion. I think that's presuming that
35:53
Speaker 1: you're using the old school built into the wall toilet
35:56
Speaker 1: paper dispenser, No, because I have the one where it
36:01
Speaker 1: sits on a free standing stand, and if I put
36:04
Speaker 1: my hand on the back of that thing and just
36:06
Speaker 1: give it a spin, it will come unspoiled. I see,
36:09
Speaker 1: I see what you mean. Yeah, if you approached it
36:11
Speaker 1: that way, then then all of a sudden, now you've
36:15
Speaker 1: changed your perspective down. I know, it's all crazy. Yeah,
36:21
Speaker 1: I just I haven't seen that many of the Uh
36:24
Speaker 1: they're kind of out of fashion now. The ones that
36:25
Speaker 1: are built into the wall, are they? Yeah, you don't
36:28
Speaker 1: see those as much anymore. No, I have I have
36:31
Speaker 1: mind coming off of the wall. It's not built into it,
36:34
Speaker 1: but it's it's you can only yeah, like you can't
36:37
Speaker 1: get to it from behind. Yeah, the classic ceramic holder
36:41
Speaker 1: built onto the wall, right, I don't have that. Although
36:44
Speaker 1: my bathroom is mauv is it really? No? I wish
36:48
Speaker 1: it's salmon that. I would love to have a color,
36:51
Speaker 1: a color coordinated bathroom. I know you would. That would
36:55
Speaker 1: be sweet. Um. Yeah, we just have those stands where
36:59
Speaker 1: the toilet papers all stacked up a up a post, yeah,
37:04
Speaker 1: and then then in the top it's got a little
37:06
Speaker 1: l shaped thing and the dude hangs on there. Yeah,
37:09
Speaker 1: we just have one that like drills into the wall. Yeah,
37:12
Speaker 1: so it's not okay, but it's it's the same thing.
37:14
Speaker 1: I can't get to the backside of it. Yeah, see
37:16
Speaker 1: I can get to the back of mine, so okay.
37:19
Speaker 1: But if you are using a kind that's a fixed
37:21
Speaker 1: to the wall, then that if you if you have
37:25
Speaker 1: it underhanged, you can't. You can't just slap it pretty easily, right, Well,
37:29
Speaker 1: that seems like a it's kind of a minor thing
37:32
Speaker 1: to really champion as a reason. Yeah, especially if you
37:34
Speaker 1: don't have kids or mischievous dogs. Right. Yeah, my dog
37:37
Speaker 1: has never done that, and the worst dogs right Okay,
37:40
Speaker 1: now you don't, well one of them. So um, you've
37:44
Speaker 1: got you've got that. And that's that's for the underhang,
37:48
Speaker 1: for the overhang. One of the other things about the
37:51
Speaker 1: underhang is that you can't see the unsightly end of
37:54
Speaker 1: the toilet paper roll. Right, that's not insightly, No, I agree,
37:58
Speaker 1: And in fact, there's a whole book out there, um
38:01
Speaker 1: you my sister got it for it's pretty awesome. It's
38:03
Speaker 1: called the Toilet Paper or Gami, and it teaches you
38:06
Speaker 1: all sorts of different ways to like fold the end
38:08
Speaker 1: of a toilet paper roll to make it. Yeah, and
38:12
Speaker 1: you you can just wake up one day and there
38:14
Speaker 1: it's all nice and fold and you're like, where am
38:16
Speaker 1: I there? Rits, Oh no, I'm at my house still,
38:19
Speaker 1: and just surprised Emily not even tell her, I think
38:23
Speaker 1: for sure. And then when she goes what it turns
38:26
Speaker 1: around you're just holding the book in front of you
38:28
Speaker 1: with a huge smile and your face saying the new
38:31
Speaker 1: chapter in our life. Yeah, and she says pooping. Why
38:34
Speaker 1: are you in the bathroom all right? Get out? Yes, yes, Emily, Yes,
38:39
Speaker 1: speaking of get Out. I just saw it last night, finally,
38:42
Speaker 1: what do you think? It was great? And I got
38:44
Speaker 1: Emily to watch it and she was reticent. She loved it. Yeah,
38:47
Speaker 1: and that's really not her jam either. I just don't
38:50
Speaker 1: see how you could not ultimately leave that movie feeling
38:53
Speaker 1: like pretty great, pretty happy that you saw it. But
38:56
Speaker 1: there are some pretty scary aspects to it too. Yeah,
38:59
Speaker 1: it was like a good straight up horror movie. Yeah,
39:01
Speaker 1: I called I called all the twists though, Oh yeah, yeah,
39:06
Speaker 1: I just and she was like, oh wow, you kind
39:09
Speaker 1: of nailed that one. Did you call the bad guy
39:11
Speaker 1: from Billy Madison being the bad guy Billy was he
39:16
Speaker 1: and Billy Madison? Yeah, Eric, I don't know if I
39:20
Speaker 1: saw Billy Madison. That's another one of those like what
39:25
Speaker 1: was I doing not seeing Tommy Boy and Billy Madison? Yeah,
39:30
Speaker 1: I think that was in my like, oh, I'm watching
39:32
Speaker 1: art films. Only got you? I got you? Uh anyway, sorry,
39:40
Speaker 1: get out? Highly recommended. Yeah, I agreed finally by me.
39:44
Speaker 1: So back to the overhand underhand thing, which, if you
39:47
Speaker 1: can believe it, we're still talking about. There is one
39:50
Speaker 1: thing in overhang, aside from the delightful toilet paper or gami,
39:54
Speaker 1: you can do. I think I think definitely says um
40:00
Speaker 1: s overhang. In an underhang, if you have a toilet
40:04
Speaker 1: roll holder up against the wall, you are inevitably going
40:08
Speaker 1: to brush your knuckles up against the wall of your
40:10
Speaker 1: bathroom to grab the toilet paper. That's something you don't
40:14
Speaker 1: want to do because if you leave the lid of
40:16
Speaker 1: your toilet open when you flush an aerosol eyes cyclone
40:21
Speaker 1: of p in poop goes all over your bathroom, including
40:26
Speaker 1: your bathroom walls. So if you cannot touch your bathroom
40:29
Speaker 1: walls when you're getting toilet paper, so much the better.
40:31
Speaker 1: Well that's not a problem for me. But you know
40:33
Speaker 1: that people around here behind your back call you big knuckles.
40:36
Speaker 1: I know, big hairy knuckles. It's been your nickname for years.
40:40
Speaker 1: I know, I know shut it's here. When I hear
40:43
Speaker 1: I just pretend like I haven't heard. All right, So
40:46
Speaker 1: let's talk about the future. Let's wind this up with
40:49
Speaker 1: like you said, Americans, apparently, um like you can pride
40:54
Speaker 1: this gun from my cold dead hand type of thing.
40:57
Speaker 1: Except it's toilet paper. Well it's it's toilet paper to
41:03
Speaker 1: right in one hand. Uh. A lot of other countries,
41:07
Speaker 1: especially you're in Europe and Japan have roundly sided with
41:11
Speaker 1: the bidet. Yeah, which I researched the bidet a little
41:15
Speaker 1: bit because I'm like, how do you even use a bidet?
41:17
Speaker 1: I've seen him before. And a true biday is you'll
41:20
Speaker 1: have a toilet and then next to that you'll have
41:22
Speaker 1: a toilet, but it doesn't have a lid, and there's
41:24
Speaker 1: like some um faucet knobs and everything in there, and
41:29
Speaker 1: you'll turn it on and like water comes up out
41:31
Speaker 1: of the bottom. So a bidet is actually French for
41:34
Speaker 1: small horse. And the reason they call it that is,
41:37
Speaker 1: because you're supposed to straddle the bidet like you would
41:39
Speaker 1: be riding a horse basically, right, and then you turn
41:43
Speaker 1: on the water and adjust it just how you want
41:45
Speaker 1: to the temperature you want, and then you adjust yourself
41:47
Speaker 1: so that it's getting those spots that it needs to get.
41:50
Speaker 1: Turn it off, dry off, wash your hands, and you're
41:53
Speaker 1: done right. And the bidet, actually that biday I just described,
41:57
Speaker 1: the porcelain fixture that goes next to the toilet was
42:01
Speaker 1: actually Americanized, Like the Americans came up with that version
42:04
Speaker 1: of the bidet and still didn't catch on in America,
42:07
Speaker 1: but Europe, where it had already been invented before. This
42:11
Speaker 1: is like the improved version of it went nuts for
42:14
Speaker 1: this Americanized version, and it just kind of got lost
42:16
Speaker 1: to time that the Americans were the ones who gave
42:19
Speaker 1: Europe the modern bidet, and we just never took it
42:23
Speaker 1: on ourselves. Well, it's definitely if you have that style,
42:26
Speaker 1: that's definitely an extra expense because you have to have
42:29
Speaker 1: that fully plumbed and uh, you have to have the
42:34
Speaker 1: space for it, you know, like it's not a cheap
42:37
Speaker 1: thing if you want to get the full deal. No,
42:39
Speaker 1: it's not, but like you have and like I have, Um,
42:43
Speaker 1: you can just basically just us as an extra hose
42:46
Speaker 1: that comes out of your already existing water supply and
42:49
Speaker 1: goes into your toilet seat. And again the expense is
42:53
Speaker 1: not utterly outrageous to get one of these. You get
42:56
Speaker 1: a quality when it's probably gonna last a while, especially
42:58
Speaker 1: if you get a Japanese one. Um. But one of
43:02
Speaker 1: the reasons why around the world bi days are so prevalent,
43:06
Speaker 1: Like in Japan, six restrooms have bi days. In Venezuela,
43:09
Speaker 1: I didn't know this have bidets actually, Um. One of
43:14
Speaker 1: the reasons why people are behind them so much is
43:16
Speaker 1: because I know I heard that to you, Um, they
43:21
Speaker 1: use way less water than toilet paper does. Oh like
43:25
Speaker 1: the manufacturing of toilet paper. Yeah, so get this man,
43:29
Speaker 1: this is a scientific American blog posts I found average
43:33
Speaker 1: bidet use is going to take about an eighth of
43:35
Speaker 1: a gallon of water to get yourself where you want
43:38
Speaker 1: to be, right, which is clean. Yeah. To make a
43:43
Speaker 1: roll of toilet paper one role, it takes thirty seven
43:47
Speaker 1: gallons of water, one point three kilowatt hours of electric,
43:52
Speaker 1: one and a half pounds of wood. So in America
43:55
Speaker 1: we use thirty six point five billion rolls of toilet
43:58
Speaker 1: paper every year. That re wires fifteen million trees, It
44:02
Speaker 1: uses four hundred and seventy three billion, five hundred and
44:06
Speaker 1: eighty seven million, five hundred thousand gallons of water, and
44:11
Speaker 1: requires seventeen point three tarawatts of electricity. Now I don't
44:15
Speaker 1: know how much taro wat is, but brother, that sounds
44:17
Speaker 1: like a lot of electricity. Man, that's disheartening. I'm gonna
44:21
Speaker 1: get my bidet going. It really is, and it makes
44:23
Speaker 1: it really kind of makes you think like, oh, toilet
44:25
Speaker 1: papers and an environmental catastrophe, so maybe a bidet is
44:29
Speaker 1: is preferable. Well. And the other thing, if you use
44:33
Speaker 1: the wet wipes, um, regardless of their flush ability on
44:38
Speaker 1: the package, they they are not great for the environment.
44:42
Speaker 1: Like it might not clog up your toilet right there,
44:45
Speaker 1: but they don't break down like toilet paper does. Um.
44:50
Speaker 1: Did you see that Consumer Reports short video on it? No? Oh,
44:54
Speaker 1: it's like forty seconds long. And they're like, this is
44:56
Speaker 1: what toilet paper looks like when you flush. And they
44:59
Speaker 1: had just kind of like a little whirlpool going in
45:01
Speaker 1: a beaker of glass of glass, beaker of water, and
45:04
Speaker 1: they dropped in some toilet paper and then immediately broke
45:06
Speaker 1: apart into five pieces. Right. They did that to wipe
45:11
Speaker 1: a flushable wipe, no less, and it did nothing, and
45:14
Speaker 1: they're like, well, let's try something harder. They put into
45:17
Speaker 1: a kitchen aid mixer with water and let it sit
45:19
Speaker 1: for ten minutes. It didn't break up at all. So
45:23
Speaker 1: they don't really break up or no one really knows
45:25
Speaker 1: how long it takes to degree, but they certainly don't
45:27
Speaker 1: break up like they actually grew in size and swelled
45:31
Speaker 1: up and turned into Nicolas cage. That's right. So the
45:34
Speaker 1: fact that this stuff uh isn't good for your your
45:38
Speaker 1: sewer system, and certainly if you have a septic system,
45:41
Speaker 1: it's probably reason enough not to always use wipes. Um.
45:46
Speaker 1: Some people apparently, uh they say, if you know, if
45:52
Speaker 1: you have an issue and you're maybe hemorrhoid or something,
45:55
Speaker 1: then you might want to use a wipe for a
45:58
Speaker 1: little while. Um, you know, follow your your heart, Like
46:03
Speaker 1: there's chemicals a lot of that stuff. Yeah, there's this.
46:07
Speaker 1: We found a self article about women using wipes or
46:11
Speaker 1: um regular toilet paper because we're creeps and we read
46:15
Speaker 1: articles like that, and um, the I think a a
46:20
Speaker 1: guy incologist was saying, you know, I think it was
46:22
Speaker 1: a dermatologist. He said that, Um, whenever a patient comes
46:26
Speaker 1: in and says, I got irritation down there, I think
46:28
Speaker 1: it's you know, probably from these wipes I'm using most
46:32
Speaker 1: of the time. It is because they have like aloe
46:34
Speaker 1: in them that someone might be allergic to. They might
46:37
Speaker 1: have like antibacterial stuff that somebody could be allergic to.
46:40
Speaker 1: And he just prescribed using basic, cheap toilet paper instead. Yeah,
46:44
Speaker 1: and um, with with with kids and babies, you know,
46:48
Speaker 1: when you're doing the work, uh, doing all that work,
46:51
Speaker 1: you obviously are gonna use wipes. Um, but I will
46:55
Speaker 1: buzz market this brand that we use water wipes and
46:59
Speaker 1: it's just water. What it's just it's just water that's
47:03
Speaker 1: the only ingredient. Oh. And I was like, it's not like,
47:08
Speaker 1: you know, we're anti fragrance in my house anyway, but
47:11
Speaker 1: it doesn't have fragrances or chemicals or anything like that.
47:15
Speaker 1: And then it's just I'll buzz market them all day
47:17
Speaker 1: because that's a good product, water wipes. Oh. One other
47:22
Speaker 1: thing we'd be remiss and saying, um that if you
47:25
Speaker 1: are a Muslim, you use something called a lota and
47:29
Speaker 1: I would strongly encourage everybody go read a great Vice
47:32
Speaker 1: article called a Muslims Guide to Anal Hygiene that explains lotas,
47:37
Speaker 1: which is basically like carrying your own pot of water
47:40
Speaker 1: to clean yourself off with. We're having one next to
47:43
Speaker 1: your your toilet. Oh one more thing too. You sent
47:47
Speaker 1: this to me. It is not your imagination. Toilet paper
47:50
Speaker 1: is getting smaller. Uh. It's decreased by about a half
47:54
Speaker 1: an inch narrower square. Yeah, four and a half inches
47:59
Speaker 1: and now to half an inch narrower and shorter. They
48:05
Speaker 1: were saying the same thing. Uh. And not only that,
48:09
Speaker 1: but they're making See this is how they get you.
48:12
Speaker 1: They make it a little bit smaller, they increase the
48:14
Speaker 1: size of the tube, and so you're actually getting less paper,
48:18
Speaker 1: but they're still charging the same or more per year.
48:24
Speaker 1: And it's actually yeah, remember we said it's going up
48:26
Speaker 1: by about two percent a year. So but you're getting
48:28
Speaker 1: less paper. And so here's how they get you. They
48:31
Speaker 1: are increasing the size of the cardboard tube. They're making
48:34
Speaker 1: it narrower, so you're actually getting less toilet paper now
48:39
Speaker 1: actual paper for either the same price or more money.
48:43
Speaker 1: Because I think you said prices are going up about
48:45
Speaker 1: two each year. So these companies that make toilet paper
48:49
Speaker 1: selling usually paper towels as well, and napkins paper napkins, uh,
48:54
Speaker 1: And apparently those are on the decline, so they're they're
48:58
Speaker 1: kind of ripping you off by juicing you with the
49:01
Speaker 1: toilet paper rolls now. Even though they call it like
49:03
Speaker 1: a double roll, it's pretty much what used to be
49:05
Speaker 1: a single roll. So that that's my toilet paper soapbox.
49:10
Speaker 1: You want to start a bloody revolution in the streets,
49:13
Speaker 1: let that word get out right. Yeah, I got nothing else.
49:19
Speaker 1: I got nothing else either, Man, toilet paper has been done.
49:23
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about toilet paper, you
49:25
Speaker 1: can type those words eventually into the search part how
49:28
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. You can also check it out
49:30
Speaker 1: a mental flass. Just go onto the internet, go watch
49:33
Speaker 1: some charm and commercials. Go look at pictures of um
49:36
Speaker 1: of colored toilet paper from the seventies. You'll love it.
49:40
Speaker 1: And since I said the seventies, it's time for listener mail.
49:44
Speaker 1: What we call this proper pronouns? Hey guys, in your
49:47
Speaker 1: last episode on standardized Patients, you read a listener mail.
49:50
Speaker 1: At the end, you weren't sure what pronouns to use
49:52
Speaker 1: for someone. Uh, they them is always a good way
49:55
Speaker 1: to go when you don't know. Maybe it's because I'm
49:57
Speaker 1: twenty two, or maybe it's because I grew up in
49:59
Speaker 1: monest Story, but I've always known they them to be
50:03
Speaker 1: plural or singular. Uh. I know that's not familiar for some.
50:08
Speaker 1: Josh also suggested the word cis gender or a neutral gender,
50:12
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to give a friendly correction. The
50:14
Speaker 1: word cis gender refers to someone who is not transgender
50:18
Speaker 1: and identifies with the gender they were assigned at birth.
50:21
Speaker 1: Cis being derived from the Latin prefix cis meaning on
50:25
Speaker 1: the side of, as opposed to trans meaning across. From
50:28
Speaker 1: the neutral term uh to use now is a gender
50:32
Speaker 1: the prefix a being without though that's just one of
50:35
Speaker 1: many terms being used these days. Thanks for everything you
50:38
Speaker 1: bring to my days. I love how much I learned
50:40
Speaker 1: from you, guys. I hope I can return the favor
50:42
Speaker 1: here your friendly neighborhood queer person, Chase, Hey, Chase, thank
50:48
Speaker 1: you for that. That was awesome. Yeah, we certainly try
50:50
Speaker 1: to always use the right terminology. It's we dropped the
50:54
Speaker 1: ball sometimes. It's hard to keep up sometimes, but we
50:57
Speaker 1: always will take those corrections and try and do it
50:59
Speaker 1: right the future. Yes, we will never ever refer to
51:04
Speaker 1: L G B T q I A as alphabet soup.
51:09
Speaker 1: Does people say that? Yeah, man, it's the worst. It's
51:14
Speaker 1: just like just a dismissive. Yeah, I hate that. Man
51:18
Speaker 1: Joves crazy. If you hear somebody saying that, set him straight, John,
51:23
Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck, Josh and Chuck, I'll get on board.
51:27
Speaker 1: Um and Jerry got that right, buddy. Jerry was over
51:31
Speaker 1: here waving like, hey, hey, hey, don't forgive me choose
51:34
Speaker 1: stomping madly. Uh Well, if you want to get in
51:37
Speaker 1: touch with this, like Chase did, you can tweet to
51:40
Speaker 1: us at Josh, I'm Clark or s Y s K podcast.
51:43
Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook, dot com, slash Charles W.
51:46
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, or slash stuff you Should Know. You can
51:49
Speaker 1: send us an email the Stuff podcast at how stuff
51:51
Speaker 1: Works dot com and has always joined us at our
51:53
Speaker 1: home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
52:00
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
52:02
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com. M