Toilet paper in public bathroom at Dallas Voice second floor office from my very first office bathroom photo shoot (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
My great toilet paper search has ended. For now, anyway.
Last night, my roommate, Jeremy, scored a 12-pack of two-ply, double-roll, won’t-fit-on-the-toilet-paper-spools-in-my-bathroom, not-made-by-Koch-Industries Scott toilet tissue at Kroger on Cedar Springs Road. Everything I’ve been holding in, I can now release. Yes, I can release my anger related to the selfishness and the stupidity of hoarding.
Since COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, it never occurred to me to hoard toilet paper like it’s never going to be manufactured again. What the hell are you hoarders wiping? Are you planning to reach down your throat and mop up your clogged lungs since we don’t have enough respirators to keep your breathing passages open?
Or is toilet paper part of some folk recipe handed down from one generation to the next that will cure the virus?
Whatever it is, hoarding is selfish and may cause people around you to become ill. How? Here’s how.
The fewer trips we make to the grocery store the better. While your new decorating theme is floor to ceiling Charmin blocking the view of your television, other people who didn’t hoard may have to go to 10 or more stores looking for toilet paper. Every contact endangers people who work in the store as well as the other people crowding the store looking for scarce items.
And just because you have enough toilet paper, you’re not making fewer trips to the store yourself. Milk doesn’t last longer because of the current crisis. Fresh vegetables don’t stay fresh longer because you bought twice as many as you can possibly use. And you can only fill your freezer just so much. So buy every package of meat in sight. Better to let it go bad than make sure other people can have some too.
I was delighted to see Aldi in Oak Cliff limiting purchases of paper products to one per customer. Even though I could have used two boxes of tissues — this is allergy season — one box for me means someone else will get one too.
See, that’s how I was raised. Share.
Despite the hoarding, people have generally been nicer in Dallas since Mayor Eric Johnson and County Judge Clay Jenkins issued their stay at home orders. People are holding doors for each other so one less person has contact with the surface. People are smiling at each other. And the mindless, “Have a good day,” has been replaced with, “Stay safe,” and people mean it.
So it’s Thursday morning. We’ve just about finished putting together a large, 52-page issue of Dallas Voice — our Readers Voice edition. Even though some of our distribution points are closed, I hope you’ll pick up a copy. Of course, we have some coronavirus coverage, but there’s lots more to read as well.
Congratulations to our Readers Voice winners and a special thank you to all of our advertisers. We always appreciate you, but this week we appreciate you ten times as much. To our readers, please patronize them if you can.
And stay home and stay safe.
— David Taffet
