Somebody Call Dwight Schrute

The Washington Post uncovers the specs for private contractors who want to supply paper towels for Capitol bathrooms:

· "C-fold paper towels provided shall have a minimum unfolded width of 10.25 inches, with a permissible variance of plus .25 or minus .50 inches, and maximum length of 14 inches.

"Each towel shall have a minimum area of 130 square inches. The folded width of each towel shall be 3 inches, with a permissible variance of plus .25 or minus .50 inches."

· "The rate of absorption of paper towel material provided shall not be greater than 20 seconds for the absorption of 0.1 milliliter of water on any representative sample of paper towel as submitted."

· "The color of the paper towel shall be white, with a minimum brightness rating of 70 when measured in accordance with the requirements of test method T-452 of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industries."

· "The minimum thickness of 12 single plies of the paper towel material provided shall be 0.070 inch when measured under an applied pressure of 0.5 psig."

Better yet is the first commenter at the Post's website, who quickly demanded to know why the specs didn't go far enough:

So why is there no minimum recycled content? Why do they have to be bleached white instead of a natural color that would not require pollutants?