Clavvs toilet paper holder

The nail with a perfectionist bent

Cultural reference: The origin of the Russian expression “hang something on a nail in the john” can apparently be attributed to rural Russia with outhouses or privies in the backyard of a country house. Toilet paper (regular rolls along with paper scraps, old newspapers, back issues of magazines, books deserving no better treatment etc.) would normally be impaled on a nail jutting out of the wall of the outhouse. A nail rather than a special holder was hammered there out of fear that if there was something valuable, it would unavoidably be stolen by a vigilant stranger. The idiomatic meaning of the expression has to do with useless or unwanted things that can be hung in a toilet at best. For example, having gotten a birthday present that’s good for nothing, you could give vent to your emotions by saying that the best you can do with this worthless crap is hang it on a nail where it belongs—in the crapper. The toilet paper holder shaped as a bent nail is the physical epitome of this common saying.