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According to Hofmann: DIY Horror #5: Toilet paper

By Mark Hofmann mhofmann@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
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Well, you truly can find anything online — even things you didn’t know you were looking for, asked for or longed for. In this case, itĢƵ do-it-yourself toilet paper, the first entry in a series I’m calling DIY Horrors.

How I came across that little gem was a video that popped up on social media when all I was looking for were movie trailers for the latest direct-to-video/streaming films starring Nicholas Cage or Bruce Willis. What I go was a video on how to make homemade toilet paper. Maybe my online guardian angel algorithm was trying to tell me something.

Anyway, when one is presented with such a video, one can either be grossed out and flee in terror, one can dive in butt-first and get all the DIY knowledge possible. Or, one can be like me and say, “Hello, future humor column!” and then press play.

I can at least say the video was very comprehensive.

You start with the initial ingredients, which is 10 sheets of newspaper. Now, I’m sure that will make those who’ve sent me “fan mail” over the years especially happy to read.

Along with that main ingredient, the recipe also calls for two handfuls of grass and leaves to be used — just make sure you avoid poison ivy and sumac or you’ll be looking up DIY Cortizone cream, which is DIY Horror #14. Stay tuned!

Then you soak the newspaper in water until it breaks apart and is all soft and mushy — much like toilet paper does before you splatter it on your ex-girlfriendĢƵ car while sheĢƵ spending the evening at her new boyfriendĢƵ house. (When the wet TP dries up, it gets hard so Derrick, “the dreamboat,” takes forever to hose it off her car, or so I’m told.)

You then take that sloppy pile of paper and put it in a pot of water along with the grass and leaves.

Then bring the pot to a boil. I don’t know what boiled newspaper and lawn debris smells like, but someone with a trained nose would walk into a kitchen, take a whiff and say, “Is that the B section of the Sunday paper? Also, I hope you didn’t take the grass from where the dogs goes to the bathroom because I’m getting a hint of Alpo.”

Next, you strain out of the water, add some baby oil, place what looks like the stomach contents of a dead giraffe on a towel and smooth it out with a rolling pin. You then cover that with another towel, a board and weights for 30 minutes to compress any remaining moisture out.

Then, to make sure you get all the remnants of the remaining moisture out, you lay the piece of modern art in the sun.

Finally, you cut it in strips so at least thereĢƵ the illusion of the shape of real toilet paper (though even in the video, the toilet paper is breaking apart as the guy cuts it in strips and rolls it up on an old toilet-paper roll).

Now, I can understand the desire to have homemade toilet paper, especially following the horror-inducing shortage of toilet paper experienced through the pandemic, but I see a few problems with making your own.

First off, something that flimsy cannot survive Taco Tuesday because even the best two-ply out there is facing an uphill battle in that scenario.

Second, if you don’t have the forethought to make your toilet paper ahead of time and keep it in storage in case of emergencies, you have to spend what looks like a good two-plus hours to make it, which will likely cause your emergency to become an accident.

Third, if you’re making your own toilet paper to save money, you better be a hermit living in a shack in the woods and and selling animal pelts in tourist traps to make a living because your guests probably won’t want to go back to your house for Taco Tuesday Trivia again.

Of course, if you still want to make your own toilet paper and keep your friends, you can always point them to the ripped-out school-bus seat with a hole in it and an attached garden hose and tell them itĢƵ your DIY bidet — AKA DIY Horror #3.

According to Hofmann is written by staff reporter Mark Hofmann of Rostraver Township. His books, “Good Mourning! A Guide to Biting the Big One … and Dying, Too” and “Stupid Brain,” are available on Amazon.com. He co-hosts the “Locally Yours” radio show on WMBS 590 AM every Friday.

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