The most annoying part about this article is that he never specified how they cleaned his son’s butt.
[Narrator voice] They didn't.
What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
91–100 of 216 posts
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an Indian, I too had this WTF moment. It makes me wonder why paper is still used in the western world. Makes one wonder if there is a TP lobby out there ? We used to make jokes what if a TP user have diarrhea, how many trees will that be ? If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water damn it. Cheap, hygienic, no left overs and green too !
Water is not universally abundant though and much more costly to transport than paper or wood.
And the water spent growing the trees?
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#93When we moved from Bangladesh to the US in the late 1980s, there were a couple of things that made us go “WTF?” One was the taste of chicken. In Bangladesh, you go buy a scrawny live chicken from the market and butcher it. It took me the better part of a year to be able to stomach American chicken, which tastes like wet cardboard in comparison. The other “WTF” thing was toilet paper. In Bangladesh, you rinse with wat…
> In Bangladesh, you rinse with water and soap after doing your business.
The only use of toilet paper in that case would be to dry yourself off after.
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#94When we moved from Bangladesh to the US in the late 1980s, there were a couple of things that made us go “WTF?” One was the taste of chicken. In Bangladesh, you go buy a scrawny live chicken from the market and butcher it. It took me the better part of a year to be able to stomach American chicken, which tastes like wet cardboard in comparison. The other “WTF” thing was toilet paper. In Bangladesh, you rinse with wat…
As an Indian, I too had this WTF moment. It makes me wonder why paper is still used in the western world. Makes one wonder if there is a TP lobby out there ? We used to make jokes what if a TP user have diarrhea, how many trees will that be ? If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water damn it. Cheap, hygienic, no left overs and green too !
> If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water
I would use both soap and water. Do people just use water without soap?
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#95When we moved from Bangladesh to the US in the late 1980s, there were a couple of things that made us go “WTF?” One was the taste of chicken. In Bangladesh, you go buy a scrawny live chicken from the market and butcher it. It took me the better part of a year to be able to stomach American chicken, which tastes like wet cardboard in comparison. The other “WTF” thing was toilet paper. In Bangladesh, you rinse with wat…
Does a bidet really clean you? Did you buy one in the states?
Absolutely... cleaner than TP will ever get you! Usually, a 30-second blast is all it takes.
$35 on Amazon. Worth every penny!
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not all writing is utilitarian. People in tech, on average, prefer the utilitarian. They also, as a whole , on average , are considered to have below average social skills and below average art skills. Their coincidence is not a coincidence. > To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that... For an introduction to So…
Why do you wonder about "down votes" on a comment that basically insults people in tech on a forum primarily visited by people in tech.
Why would tech people, who pride themselves on objectivity, find it insulting?
Do tech people deny that they, AS A WHOLE, ON AVERAGE, have below average social skills and below average art skills?
A lot of men in tech also deny that current tech culture is sexist, often misogynist. That's male objectivity for you. Perhaps a similar "biased objectivity" is at play here.
It's all a bit ironic given that the two comments to which I replied are essentially insulting the author of the article and anyone who appreciates things beyond the utilitarian. They are essentially saying, "It's garbage. It's worthless."
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#97I wonder why so many articles today have so many words but yet so little content? This one has a mile-long introduction. The headlines question could have been answered in rather few words. I feel a short answer had satisfied me. To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that... I said I wonder why, I guess that was a…
I still follow the "Wadsworth Constant" from several years ago, which says one can skip the first 30% of content to get to the heart of the thing being discussed. Otherwise, I just skim through, looking for anything relevant to the title.
Works on HN too, apaprently. (This thread, QED.)
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
> green Well, increased water consumption has a lot of ecological problems as well. Plus most of us westerners would probably balk at using cold water, so we'd waste a lot of energy heating it up too.
> Well, increased water consumption has a lot of ecological problems as well. Well, using paper costs more water than using water itself. Also, the ecological problems of using paper is far worse than using water alone[0][1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper#Environmental_con...
Water has a really high heat capacity, meaning that it takes a lot of energy to heat.
Intuitively, how much water do you think the toilet paper of one bathroom visit would heat, if usef as fuel? (Answer: much less than what you would use to replace TP)
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#99When we moved from Bangladesh to the US in the late 1980s, there were a couple of things that made us go “WTF?” One was the taste of chicken. In Bangladesh, you go buy a scrawny live chicken from the market and butcher it. It took me the better part of a year to be able to stomach American chicken, which tastes like wet cardboard in comparison. The other “WTF” thing was toilet paper. In Bangladesh, you rinse with wat…
Sometimes I wish there was a website where immigrants could list things that are far superior in their country of origin than the one they immigrated to. It’d be very useful for other immigrants so they can temper expectations before committing to such drastic change. Other than toilet practices & the taste of chicken, there’s so many areas where the third world is light years ahead of america. Often I have to fight the urge to lecture my pampered american kid on how much better it was back in india even though i was dirt poor when growing up there.
Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper
#100Ah I bet the author doesn’t know how to use the 3 shells...