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