@madamesweat: Every person at the public latrine used the exact same stick. It's called a tersorium, Ancient Rome's version of toilet paper. Passed hand to hand, rinsed in a bucket of vinegar or saltwater between uses. Here's the twist: vinegar is genuinely antimicrobial. Rome landed on a real disinfectant, they just applied it in the most horrifying way a person could apply a good idea. Send this to whoever's nostalgic for "simpler times." Simpler times had one sponge. For everyone.