Shortages

Everyone reading this post has noticed their grocery and gas bills shoot up over the past few months.  These are not the result of the war in The Ukraine, despite the mewling protestations of the Biden Administration to the contrary.  In part, they are the result of extended lockdowns during The Age of The Virus, and the subsequent disruption to the world’s “just-in-time” production model.  Shutting everything down immediately probably didn’t do much to stop the spread of The Virus, but it definitely stopped the spread of goods, and the production thereof.

But these shortages seemed largely academic until recently.  Sure, you’d hear about them here and there, and it was impossible to buy toilet paper for awhile, but other than a few panic-induced shortages, you could pretty much get what you needed, even if you had to pay double for it.

Now, for the first time since the very early days of The Age of The Virus, I’m getting seriously concerned about looming shortages—and not just a few missing luxury items from store shelves (not that toilet paper is a luxury item, but there are always substitutes for that), but the basic necessities of life.

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Lazy Sunday CV: Grab Bag II

Here we are, another Sunday, which means it’s time for another Lazy Sunday.  I’m feeling particularly lazy this weekend, so instead of searching out a particular theme, I’m offering up another grab bag of miscellaneous posts.  I tried to pick three posts from the past year—one from March 2020, one from March 2021, and another random post.  For that random post I went to October 2020, because I love all the spooky stuff I write in October.

So, here they are—your second Lazy Sunday grab bag:

  • The Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 1973” – It’s amazing how everyone was losing their heads a year ago over toilet paper.  I still see signs in stores warning customers they are only allowed one package of toilet paper per visit.  I had (thankfully) purchased fresh toilet paper about a week before The Age of The Virus began, not out of special forethought or insights into what was to come, but because I was running.  Thank God for that.  This post details another toilet paper shortage in 1973, fueled by the reckless comments of a Wisconsin Congressman.
  • Monsters” – This post dealt with an issue of The Hedgehog Review about monsters.  As a fan of horror movies, I enjoy speculation about monsters, and am particularly interested in “cryptids” and cryptozoology—the study of presumably mythical and/or undiscovered species.  Who knows what wonders are still out there to discover—maybe the Lizard Man of Lee County?
  • The Joy of Romantic Music IV: Claude Debussy” – A more recent post, this piece is the fourth installment in my ever-growing The Joy of Romantic Music series.  I’m a real sucker for French Romantic composers, and Debussy’s beautiful, painterly Impressionism is quite lovely.

That’s it for another Sunday.  Enjoy this smattering of posts—and have a wonderful week!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

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The Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 1973

Yesterday morning over at the blog Nebraska Energy Observer, NEO’s in-house guest writer, Audre Meyers, wrote a short, fun piece about prepping, “The Neo made me do it!,” in which she extolled the virtues of preparing ahead of time for disasters, rather then getting caught up in the frenzied mobs of panicked shoppers.  She wrote about some various and sundry items she needed to top off, including the increasingly-precious toilet paper, because “there are some things I simply refuse to do without!”

In reply, commenter “Scoop” referenced a similar toilet paper shortage in 1973 (and provided a handy link to a piece about the scare in a follow-up comment).  There’s even a documentary about it!

With the obligatory hat-tips squared away, let’s dive into this early 1970s TP shortage—one that mirrors our own mania for clean bums.  What is it about toilet paper—and the threat that it will disappear—that drives Americans to hysterics?

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