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What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

nautil.us

111–120 of 216 posts

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 comment…

My social skills are just fine. You don't waste my time, and I won't waste yours. If you ain't got nothing to say, don't waste my time.

Sir, this is a Denny's.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#112
post #79
post #10

I 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…

Dude, an article about Roman anal hygiene is not to be read for important facts. It's feuilleton, reading as pleasure per se, light-hearted entertainment, path, not destination. Having said that, I agree that a) this article was extremely light on facts, b) many other long articles about actually important topics digress way too much on setting the scene.

Agreed. This is a perfect article to read, while sitting and taking care of #2.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#113
post #27
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imported a Toto Washlet from Japan for this very reason. When you get literal shit on your hands, do you wipe it, or wash it? Why is your ass different?

I'll tell you the difference since you asked; If you wanted to eat a hamburger, and i handed it to you with my hand.. you would eat it... I really hope i don't need to finish that thought for you. I swear this is where the saying 'Don't know your arse from your elbow' comes from.

That makes no sense. Don’t you use your hands to scrub back there when you shower in the morning? If soap is good enough for that, why is it not enough for post toilet hand cleaning?

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#114
post #10

I 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…

For real, I can’t stand this kind of longform. They take three simple facts and write an article that is more a short essay. And when the write starts with an accurate description of weather, place or person, “It was a foggy winter day in …”, “we reached a hidden part of the shore”, “is a tall woman with bright expressive eyes" you know you’ll be stuck in a fifteen minutes reading without learning anything.

I might be wrong but this longform is called "feature article". It's not meant to be for quick consumption. I'm not sure what is happening with our brains, but I find it increasingly difficult to concentrate and appreciate longer writings. Nowadays everything is about getting info in small chunks. No time for meandering flow of thoughts.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#115
post #8
post #3

When 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…

Having just recently returned from Kolkata, India ... I agree the chicken tastes so much different, and better. The bananas too ! No comparison to the bananas in the US.

What else suffers in comparison? The fruit?

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#116
post #99
post #3

When 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…

What else do you miss?

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 comment…

Making broad generalizations about humans, as we all know, can be really dangerous, prone to eggregious errors, and large groups of people often fail to enjoy one-size-fits-all style treatment. Humans really are THAT diverse, even when you deal with relatively homogenous ethnic subgroups.

That said, it still holds true that effluent human output aggregates according to a certain undeniable smell, blameless to any individual, when you step back and let a social order chug away, and sniff the fumes they produce.

Sort of like a poultry farm. The chickens aren't trying to smell like chicken shit, but there's almost no way a thousand chickens wouldn't produce the smell of manure, when subjected to the conditions agribusiness often utilizes to farm chickens.

Knowing this much, take a hard look at what a technical job asks of the employee. Years spent alone, in silence and solitude, tinkering and fiddling with extremely dry subject matter, usually with dispassionate goals that abstract away from any emotional involvement.

Does that sound like something an attractive person would seek out? Does that sound like something a creative person might enjoy?

But then, there's the money. Why heap so much value upon tech workers? Because, highly pedantic and uncompromising decision making leads to accurate automation and force multiplication.

The cart now leads the horse. All that money. All that prestige. Something extroverts and creative, gregarious people pine for. Why reward these shut-ins? These deformed, mumbling, poorly groomed, bespectacled pick-noses for all the tiddley winks they seem to play with their tin cans and their blinking baubles and their yarn?

The money and praise should go to the attractive, the vivacious, the beautiful! The humans! It's just not fair!

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#118
post #10

I 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 wonder how anyone could consider this as being "so many words", or being so time poor that they couldn't spare 4 mins to read it...

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#119
post #10

I 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 wonder how anyone could consider this as being "so many words", or being so time poor that they couldn't spare 4 mins to read it...

I share the GP's complaint. It's less about the length -- it's not all that long -- but about the meandering nature of the form. The introduction of the author's family is not extensive enough to grab my attention as a reader, nor does the banality of the situation make them feel like anything other than a small bit of padding, nor do I feel closer to the author for our shared experience. Had the article started at "Modern American society..." this would have been a much snappier opener, though I'd argue that paragraph 4 should be rescued in some fashion.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#120
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC I read somewhere that in some places people use the right hand to wash their bums, open doors, shake hands, and other dirtier stuff. Left hand is used when needing tottouch food and other cleaner things.

The other way around :)

Oh dear..

So the left hand is for dirty work, and the right hand for clean?

But why do we shake hands with the right hand then? I guess there could be some "social respect" reason, but from a germs-and-stuff point of view it seems nonsensical?

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