After we spoke a couple weeks ago about eponymous laws, a listener who works as a janitor gave us one of his own: Given any two rolls of toilet paper, the larger roll will get smaller before the smaller gets used up. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Janitor’s Eponymous Law”
Grant, remember when we were talking about Murphy’s Law and other laws named for people,
and we asked people to send us their laws?
Oh, yeah.
We heard from Peter Van Persim, who is a custodian in a library in Wisconsin.
And this is Van Persim’s Law.
A. Given any two rolls of toilet paper hanging side by side in a bathroom dispenser, the larger slash newer roll will be used more quickly and thus approach the size of the smaller roll faster than the smaller roll will be used up.
B. As the size of the newer approaches the size of the older, confusion arises as to which one is bigger and both rolls will shrink at nearly the same rate.
C. This tendency is exploded if one of the two roles is left wrapped while in place.
That’s so true.
He’s so observant.
Yes, it’s very true.
A janitor would know these things.
Right.
And I wrote him back and I asked him about our graffiti discussion.
And he said, indeed, he’s seeing much, much less graffiti.
Well, I know there’s some kind of law about your life.
What is the thing that you think rules everything in your world?
Tell us, name it, and we’ll talk about it on the air.
877-929-9673.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
