Toilet paper rolls: Under or Over?
Wed 28 Mar 2007Gold Coast blogger, SurferCam asks the hard-hitting questions “Fold or Scrunch?”. In the comments, Sydney blogger Hunii has brought up the Under vs Over debate…
I once heard a radio interview with Cheryl Kernot, at that time, a Democrat Senator. The interviewer’s final question was “Toilet paper rolls: Under or Over?” Cheryl immediately got the joke and launched into the consummate politician’s answer to every question, “I’m glad you asked that question. It’s something of great importance to the everyday lives of all Australians. Blah… blah… blah…”
But really, it’s the wrong question. The world is not divided into “Unders” and “Overs”. Instead, the world is divided into:
- Those who think about what they are doing; and therefore get it right (Overs)
- Those who have no idea what they are doing. These folks will get it right 50% of the time, depending entirely on which way the roll comes out of the packet.
This last group sometimes have good days and sometimes have bad days. On the bad days, everything conspires against them, even inanimate objects like the toilet roll holder which jams. And they never know why. Sadly, they never realise how much control they could have over their own lives, if only they used their brains.
We all know these people exist. Every time you see your toilet roll in the “Under” configuration, there’s the evidence. One of them has been near you.
OK, I’ll stop now. (*Flushing sound*)
March 29th, 2007 at 8:10
I’m with you Mike! Hooray for thinking!
March 29th, 2007 at 8:19
Now it all makes sense! Those poor, poor non-thinkers. It’s lucky there are people like us in the world to help correct their mistakes.
March 29th, 2007 at 17:47
Agree.
100%
BUT there are pathological under-folders. What’s with them? Pathological losers? Or are they more cunning, and just want us to THINK they are pathological losers?
March 29th, 2007 at 18:39
Hi Sherd, Miff, Ashleigh. I know you guys all have jobs where you get to exercise your brains
I also know many people who are very intelligent when it comes to knowing lots of facts but have a very tenuous grasp on the concept of cause and effect. They are very good at “Let’s do it this way, it’s quicker” but completely deaf when someone else says “No, we should do it properly. If we do it this way, we’ll just have to redo it in 6 months.” Have you met these people? I reckon they’d be sometime under-folders.
However, I will accept that there is a case for deliberate under-folding in households where small children and/or puppies could unwind a whole roll if the holder didn’t jam. At least these people have thought about it.
April 3rd, 2007 at 17:50
I considered the under-fold to prevent whole rolls of TP ending up scrunched down the toilet by the darling kidlets….
….I couldn’t bring myself to do it….its just wrong….so so wrong! So I just buy them home brand toilet paper and scream like a banshee if I see them unrolling the good stuff….
April 3rd, 2007 at 18:32
Like Mummy B’s comment!
I take it Mike that you class under-folders in the same category as slugs, and the horrible stuff you scrape off your shoes every now and then.
BTW - I worked with a s/w guy once who had the attitude of “do it fast and i’ll tidy it up later” - almost the same as what you describe. Trouble was, he NEVER did tidy anything up later. I scored fixing his whole sorry mess (after he had put in 11 months of development, i was given 2 weeks to fix it. I did, nights and weekends went into it. Of about 10K lines of Ada code, I think I preserved about 3. Lines, not K lines. It was horrible.) He got promoted
BUT I BET he was an under-folder.
You know what I really dislike about under-folding?
The paper hanging down and TOUCHING the wall. Urgh. ~shudder~
April 3rd, 2007 at 22:30
Mummy B: Yes, one of my little angels had a friend over to play one day. The friend showed my little angel a fun trick: Feed one end of the roll off the holder and down into the bowl. Flush, and watch how fast the roll spins. Extra points if it keeps spinning paper onto the floor after the water stops.
Ashleigh: Yep, you’ve hit the nail on the head. What I really wanted to complain about was people who don’t think about ALL the consequences of their actions. Or who make judgements based on short-term considerations. Like “How will this affect us at the next election?”, rather than “How will this affect the long-term survival of our species on this planet?”
OK, I’ll come right out and say it: “Johnny Howard is a dirty rotten under-folder!”
April 18th, 2007 at 22:06
Well we certainly cover the heavy topics here. Here’s another - scruncher or folder.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:13
Hi Len, Yep, that’s how this whole thing started.
July 28th, 2007 at 23:35
Parliament. Level 13. Evil toilet paper holder, you may have won the first round with your mysterious lack of detachment functionality, but I will prevail!
July 24th, 2008 at 12:10
Maybe unders just do it to piss overs off…..=o)