Paul, Cathy and Larry were sitting on Paul's porch after a golf outing when Paul asked, "Are you a folder or a crumpler?" You see Paul had a pet theory about how the world could be divided into two kinds of people - those who fold their toilet paper, and those who crumple it.

It's not that he thought that such a theory would lead one to understand people better.

(As in "Oh, he's a crumpler, he must have had a rough childhood." Or "Oh, she's a folder, she should probably go into engineering.")

It's just that, for Paul, if the world can be carved up in some way, then it should be. And if you can place yourself into one part of the world, rather than the other, you should, simply because it feels good to know your place.

So Paul, wanting both to share his theory and for Cathy and Larry to know their place in the world, asked, "Are you a folder or a crumpler?"

It is interesting to note that Cathy answered immediately that she was a crumpler. How did she know such a thing so quickly?

It might be that she had already given this question a lot of thought, and had been secretly thinking of herself as a crumpler for many years.

Or it might be that she is just one of those people who pays close attention to the way she uses toilet paper.

Larry, on the other hand, didn't show such outstanding self-awareness. He couldn't say immediately whether he was a folder or a crumpler. But, having psychological tendencies similar to Paul's, he knew he had to find out.

So Larry went into Paul's bathroom, grabbed a roll of toilet paper, and came back out onto the porch, where he sat and tried to figure out whether he was a folder or a crumpler.

Cathy also grabbed some toilet paper and tried to figure out why in the world anyone would fold their toilet paper. As a matter of fact, as she sat folding, she asked out loud, "Why in the world would anyone fold their toilet paper?"

Paul and Larry heard Cathy's words, saw her folding the toilet paper, and simultaneously thought, "toilet paper origami." No one said a thing, but when Paul and Larry looked up, and their eyes met, they knew instantly that they had had the same thought.

Silence, and knowing smiles, prevailed for about ten seconds, until one of them (Paul or Larry, no one can remember which of the two) said, "It's a book." And the other replied, "Yes it is." And so, as they say, the rest is history. It is a book, and you are holding it in your hands.

By the way, it turns out that Paul's original theory was wrong. For Larry discovered that he neither folds nor crumples. Instead he uses a technique that can only be described as "rolling-pinching".

But that's another story, for another book. (Although we will note here that it probably indicates that Larry had a happy childhood, but faces an uncertain future.)