Cesium-133, the Sun, Moon, stars, or.... T.P. Scott-1000?

[JT Smith]

Early in the pandemic there was, at least in the U.S., a concern about toilet paper shortages. It all seems so quaint now but there were actually runs on t.p. in supermarkets and people were hoarding it. There are of course other ways to clean up afterwards. I reckon that most people in the world do not use paper for this purpose. It's arguable that it is not only environmentally less sound but also less effective than alternative methods. I can't help but wonder if domestic sales of Japanese butt-washing toilets increased in 2020.

We weren't terribly worried. We had enough for several months, we had a newspaper delivered each morning, and corn on the cob was available in the markets even in the winter months. Other possibilities existed:

Nonetheless, we began keeping track, noting each installation of a new roll in the bathroom on our wall calendar. It became a kind of pandemic metronome for us, long after t.p. was a subject of pandemic conversation. How long has the pandemic been going on? I could tell simply by the t.p. count (or by the ever-increasing length of my hair).

And now, 21 months later, we have just today hung the 100th roll. I feel like we should celebrate in some fashion.

 

[dlgoff]

There are of course other ways to clean up afterwards.

I had an uncle that went in the woods and picked up a handful of dried leaves to use, but in those leaves was a copperhead snake. Yep, it bit him on the butt. I was told this at a very young age and IIRC, he died.