{"id":20353,"date":"2019-07-13T13:34:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T20:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/?p=20353"},"modified":"2019-07-22T15:20:33","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T22:20:33","slug":"over-or-under-an-example-of-fair-minded-problem-solving-and-allegorical-technique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/?p=20353","title":{"rendered":"Over or Under? An Example of Fair-Minded Problem-Solving (and Allegorical Technique)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the house where I spent my most formative years, we always put the toilet paper roll on the holder in an &#8220;over&#8221; position:  where the sheets of paper would dispense from the top of the roll and not the bottom.  Not surprisingly, I held strong convictions that &#8220;over&#8221; was the only correct way to hang toilet paper.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/?attachment_id=20356\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20357\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"20357\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/?attachment_id=20357\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000031-f500.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"500,281\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"miscellaneous-000031-f500\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000031-f500.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000031-f500.jpg\" alt=\"Toilet paper roll in both configurations: over and under. [Formatted]\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20357\" srcset=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000031-f500.jpg 500w, http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000031-f500-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When I would visit friends&#8217; homes in my youth, I found that some of them put their toilet paper in the &#8220;over&#8221; position and others put it in the &#8220;under&#8221; position.  This was confusing to me, because &#8220;over&#8221; was so obviously right and &#8220;under&#8221; was so obviously wrong.  For my friends&#8217; families who did it this other way, I started to wonder what else might be off about them:  hanging their toilet paper the &#8220;wrong&#8221; way made me suspect other flaws in their character.<\/p>\n<p>As I matured, lived in different houses, and had roommates, I became more tolerant of toilet paper being hung  in the &#8220;under&#8221; orientation.  It was still an odd experience, but I came to accept that the preference people have for hanging toilet paper is just one of the many ways we are all unique from one another.  Maybe there wasn&#8217;t anything wrong with the &#8220;under&#8221; people after all?<\/p>\n<p>Some time later, I rented a house with an extremely small bathroom, and the toilet paper holder was placed surprisingly close to the toilet.  After a few months of being angry at the suboptimal use of space in this bathroom, I had an epiphany:  if I oriented the toilet paper in the &#8220;under&#8221; orientation, the end-sheet would be <em>farther<\/em> away from me which would create more space between the toilet and would thus be easier to grab!  To my astonishment, from that point forward I found myself putting toilet paper on the &#8220;wrong&#8221; way in my own house!<\/p>\n<p>These days, it doesn&#8217;t really matter to me what orientation is being used:  I&#8217;m comfortable with both.  I have found, however, that if the holder is too far away then the &#8220;over&#8221; method wins, and that if it is too close then the &#8220;under&#8221; method wins.  In both cases, the objective is utilizing the available space as effectively as possible.<br \/>\n (I just checked both of my current bathrooms, neither of which have space issues, and the toilet paper is unsurprisingly in the &#8220;over&#8221; orientation.) I also would expect that a person&#8217;s dominant hand and the side of the toilet the holder is located could be another factor.  There are different sized toilets too, which is something I never bothered to notice until recently!<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps in the case of toilet paper roll orientation preferences, subtle practicalities establish lifelong habits.  Also, one person&#8217;s toilet paper habits can easily transfer to impressionable youth in a shared living space, and when they grow up they will most likely continue to do what is familiar without ever really understanding the reasons why.<\/p>\n<p>Oh&#8230; and there is a third option that not very many people know about:  spear the toilet paper through the secondary axis and make it as difficult as possible to use.  This is particularly effective <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/funny\/comments\/1n1sm6\/staying_at_my_dads_and_his_wife_had_a_go_at_me\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">when somebody gives you a hard time<\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/icon-external-link-12x12.png\" alt=\"icon-external-link-12x12\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" \/> for putting the roll on the &#8220;wrong&#8221; way.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/?attachment_id=20354\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20355\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"20355\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/?attachment_id=20355\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000030-f500.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"500,375\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"miscellaneous-000030-f500\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000030-f500.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000030-f500.jpg\" alt=\"Toilet paper roll speared by the bar of the holder. [Formatted]\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20355\" srcset=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000030-f500.jpg 500w, http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000030-f500-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/miscellaneous-000030-f500-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the house where I spent my most formative years, we always put the toilet paper roll on the holder in an &#8220;over&#8221; position: where the sheets of paper would dispense from the top of the roll and not the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/?p=20353\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[648],"tags":[647,811],"class_list":["post-20353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-musings","tag-toilet-humor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DQCb-5ih","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20353"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20394,"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20353\/revisions\/20394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/unwisdom.org\/chadspace\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}