PUBLISHER’S CORNER

July 27, 2018

By Eloise Graham

The Very Important Papers

Recently I was reminded of a skit that I had seen numerous times at Scout training functions or campfire ceremonies. It goes something like this:

The location is a General’s office at an Army camp. The General bellows out, “Where are the very important papers?” The staff and other members of the brass hurriedly scatter about, looking in file cabinets, desk drawers, briefcases etc making various comments. These include, “Are these the ones?”; “These?”; “Not here.”; Did you look here?” and so forth. At the same time, a Private is walking by the office on his way to the Quartermaster’s. He hears the General. On returning from the Quatermaster, he rushes in the General’s office and exclaims, “Here are the important papers.” And hands the General a roll of toilet paper.

Okay, you can stop chuckling or groaning, whichever fits your fancy. However, I do want to talk to you about toilet paper.

Have you noticed that the rolls no longer fill the spindle they are placed on? I remember they used to be almost the same width as the holder. The cardboard core now measures 13/4 inches in diameter. Back when I was a Den Leader, my den would use the core rolls to decorate for napkin rings for the Blue ‘n Gold Banquet. The diameter then was a scant 11/2 inches across. My calculations tell me that these “double” rolls probably have about the same square inches of paper as the single rolls of yore. Another case of consumer purchasing of shrinkage.

Now for some personalized rolls that I saw on Facebook.