Toilet Paper Day is celebrated every year on August 26 - I have no idea why, but really: why not? Grab a seat - maybe even in the "reading room" for some appropriate ambiance - and let's whoop it up!
I'll start with a stat. Back during my husband C's work in consumer products, he came across market research that said that there was a 98% Household Penetration Rate for toilet paper in the United States. Translated from the business-ese, that means that 98% of US households buy toilet paper. I'll give that a moment to sink in...ninety-eight percent of US households buy toilet paper... So, what on earth are the other 2% using?? Ewww...
But let's not jump to conclusions just yet. Perhaps that rebel 2% are instead using all those catalogs that clog the mailbox with irritating regularity, taking Reduce/Reuse/Recyle to a whole 'nother level - old school. You may recall (or if you're not old enough, you may recall reading about) the, ahem, alternate use put to the old Sears & Roebuck catalogs? Or maybe you're more familiar with one of the spinoff catalogs that made the rounds: Rears & Sorebutt...
Yes, the use of toilet paper is important (being kinder to one's behind, and all), but so is how it's used. Or, more specifically, how it comes off the roll. That's right: the dreaded Roll Dispenser Controversy. When one installs a roll of t.p. on the dispenser, should the paper dispense from over the roll, or from under it? I'm an over-the-roll proponent myself. And as per usual in Chez Wheedleton, C holds the opposing view, insisting - not through word, but through dispenser-filling deed - that the correct installation is under-the-roll.
And now, our little celebration must come to an end, so I'll leave you with a t.p. claim to fame for Philly. In 1867, brothers Edward, Clarence, and Thomas Scott began selling a type of toilet paper from a pushcart in Philadelphia, PA. The end result all these years later? A thriving paper product business, with grateful (and clean) behinds everywhere. (Well, at least 98% of them...)
