First there was the toothbrush as an object of fear and trembling. Now this.
Comments
Be afraid. Be very afraid… — 19 Comments
These articles are so tedious. Since everything is full of germs, why aren’t we all dead right now? Why did we develop immune systems?
Aargh.
OTOH …I’m pretty sure I should’ve died from towel malfeasance or something 60 years ago.
Maybe we all had good germs? – Yeah. I’ll go with that.
Its important for the peasants to be in a constant state of fear. Fear of towels and other silly threats to our safety keeps the experts gainfully employed.
davisbr: You are absolutely right. All human skin and all mucous membranes are covered by bacterial films, not only harmless, but essential for skin health and its defense from harmful bacteria. Ignorance of authors of the cited article quite obvious, they even don’t make any distinction between helpful bacteria and harmful ones.
No. Certainly not. Everyone else should be afraid of your towel. You, on the other hand, ought to obey the injunction “Don’t Panic”, as well as that other preeminent injunction: “Always know where your towel is.”
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
towels and the “answer” to life and everything (42)
Well, I enjoyed the article. Most people aren’t going to have problems, some may. I’ve gone back and forth on having a fresh towel and more laundry or using it two days. I’m back to the fresh towel regime now. And the shared hand towels when someone in the house is sick or compromised is a good point. My sister is visiting us and I’m shocked by the food safety/ hygiene stuff she doesn’t know about. From never washing her dog’s bowls to thinking it’s okay to leave ground beef in the frig for ten days before cooking it. And putting cooked food back on the plate it was on when the food was raw. Yuck. Most of the time it’s probably okay. But if you’ve ever been on the toilet and had to look for something to throw up in cuz it’s coming out both ends – I vote for it’s not worth taking the chance.
KLSmith,
Common sense is in need of a revival.
My To Read list contains “I Contain Multitudes,” which is a book about our microbiome. I figure that my accumulated tiny friends are tougher than anything I might pick up from a damp towel, and I’ve had almost 70 years to work with them.
parker,
That’s certainly one motivation. I suspect the primary motivation lies deeper. They live in fear because they have bought into the meme that this is all there is, so a life shortened by even an hour is an utter anathema.
The sentiment; “Duty, heavier than a mountain. Death, lighter than a feather…” is utterly incomprehensible to such as they.
expat:
Thanks for the book recommendation; sounds very interesting!
Some people are not bright and/or just never grew up. Wash your damn towels. Pick up the towel off the floor and hang it up so it can dry after use. Don’t just walk around scattering debris and garbage in your wake. I remember seeing one of those housekeeping shows that were popular for a minute about five years ago (the lull between gardening/home makeover shows and nanny shows). A couple was surprised to be informed that they needed to wash their sheets at least once a week. The sheets had gone unwashed for months. Feh. The house had not been vacuumed or dusted in years and the kitchen was basically a cesspool with dishes. Don’t even ask about the bathroom.
GB,
I agree even though I am agnostic. If all one sees is their mortal existence as a dead end street, it produces that anathema. Personally, I can look back to my ancestors of many generations and also look at my children and granchildern, and I hope to live to hold a great grandchild. That is my immortality. I am just one life in that story that never ends as long as the earth abides. After that, I do not know what my individual and inevitable death may mean or not mean.
Its a mystery. Quoting Iris Dement, “I think I’ll just let the mystery be.”.
People really should use more lemon oil and clove, if they are worried about stuff like this. But then again, they’ll just get the EPA to ban environmentally unsafe bulbs for the environmentally safe CFL ones with mercury in them.
As parker said, people get mentally weak getting fed this propaganda, the weak call on the EPA for protection, and then of course we all know what happens then.
expat:
Happy me! They have the book at our library. It’s on the list after “Red Platoon” then “A Great Good Thing.” Books are what winter is for? 🙂
RUSSIA MASSIVE NUKE DRILL…
40 MILLION EVACUATE…
Art, this is a canard. At least I can not see any signs of it happening in Moscow or in Russian media. I read this in Daily Mail and could not believe a single word of the article. I do not think such drill is even possible, considering logistics and the dire straits of Russian economy: government even have no money to index pensions for inflation as the law requires.
Now this is simply silly. It is obvious that at the time of my towel use, after a shower, my body is the single cleanest thing in the house. It is also the only thing the towel touches. Therefore the towel should never need to be washed, right? 🙂
Well, I’m not dead yet. Maybe I could wash it every two days, or well – buy more towels! I think I go three days… I don’t have a lot of towels. This will definitely get the towel industry moving. I already don’t leave my toothbrush in the bathroom any more but in my bedroom since I read about the germs coming up and out of the toilet bowl when the toilet flushes and well, there is your toothbrush… That did it. So, maybe I will just buy more towels.
On the other hand, it strikes me that this is overkill. We have all kinds of bacteria around us all the time, one needs to take some precautions but still… your immune system needs to be healthy by developing some immunity against some of this stuff and it can’t do that in a vacuum.
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These articles are so tedious. Since everything is full of germs, why aren’t we all dead right now? Why did we develop immune systems?
Aargh.
OTOH …I’m pretty sure I should’ve died from towel malfeasance or something 60 years ago.
Maybe we all had good germs? – Yeah. I’ll go with that.
Its important for the peasants to be in a constant state of fear. Fear of towels and other silly threats to our safety keeps the experts gainfully employed.
davisbr: You are absolutely right. All human skin and all mucous membranes are covered by bacterial films, not only harmless, but essential for skin health and its defense from harmful bacteria. Ignorance of authors of the cited article quite obvious, they even don’t make any distinction between helpful bacteria and harmful ones.
No. Certainly not. Everyone else should be afraid of your towel. You, on the other hand, ought to obey the injunction “Don’t Panic”, as well as that other preeminent injunction: “Always know where your towel is.”
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
towels and the “answer” to life and everything (42)
Well, I enjoyed the article. Most people aren’t going to have problems, some may. I’ve gone back and forth on having a fresh towel and more laundry or using it two days. I’m back to the fresh towel regime now. And the shared hand towels when someone in the house is sick or compromised is a good point. My sister is visiting us and I’m shocked by the food safety/ hygiene stuff she doesn’t know about. From never washing her dog’s bowls to thinking it’s okay to leave ground beef in the frig for ten days before cooking it. And putting cooked food back on the plate it was on when the food was raw. Yuck. Most of the time it’s probably okay. But if you’ve ever been on the toilet and had to look for something to throw up in cuz it’s coming out both ends – I vote for it’s not worth taking the chance.
KLSmith,
Common sense is in need of a revival.
My To Read list contains “I Contain Multitudes,” which is a book about our microbiome. I figure that my accumulated tiny friends are tougher than anything I might pick up from a damp towel, and I’ve had almost 70 years to work with them.
parker,
That’s certainly one motivation. I suspect the primary motivation lies deeper. They live in fear because they have bought into the meme that this is all there is, so a life shortened by even an hour is an utter anathema.
The sentiment; “Duty, heavier than a mountain. Death, lighter than a feather…” is utterly incomprehensible to such as they.
expat:
Thanks for the book recommendation; sounds very interesting!
Some people are not bright and/or just never grew up. Wash your damn towels. Pick up the towel off the floor and hang it up so it can dry after use. Don’t just walk around scattering debris and garbage in your wake. I remember seeing one of those housekeeping shows that were popular for a minute about five years ago (the lull between gardening/home makeover shows and nanny shows). A couple was surprised to be informed that they needed to wash their sheets at least once a week. The sheets had gone unwashed for months. Feh. The house had not been vacuumed or dusted in years and the kitchen was basically a cesspool with dishes. Don’t even ask about the bathroom.
GB,
I agree even though I am agnostic. If all one sees is their mortal existence as a dead end street, it produces that anathema. Personally, I can look back to my ancestors of many generations and also look at my children and granchildern, and I hope to live to hold a great grandchild. That is my immortality. I am just one life in that story that never ends as long as the earth abides. After that, I do not know what my individual and inevitable death may mean or not mean.
Its a mystery. Quoting Iris Dement, “I think I’ll just let the mystery be.”.
People really should use more lemon oil and clove, if they are worried about stuff like this. But then again, they’ll just get the EPA to ban environmentally unsafe bulbs for the environmentally safe CFL ones with mercury in them.
As parker said, people get mentally weak getting fed this propaganda, the weak call on the EPA for protection, and then of course we all know what happens then.
expat:
Happy me! They have the book at our library. It’s on the list after “Red Platoon” then “A Great Good Thing.” Books are what winter is for? 🙂
RUSSIA MASSIVE NUKE DRILL…
40 MILLION EVACUATE…
Art, this is a canard. At least I can not see any signs of it happening in Moscow or in Russian media. I read this in Daily Mail and could not believe a single word of the article. I do not think such drill is even possible, considering logistics and the dire straits of Russian economy: government even have no money to index pensions for inflation as the law requires.
Now this is simply silly. It is obvious that at the time of my towel use, after a shower, my body is the single cleanest thing in the house. It is also the only thing the towel touches. Therefore the towel should never need to be washed, right? 🙂
Well, I’m not dead yet. Maybe I could wash it every two days, or well – buy more towels! I think I go three days… I don’t have a lot of towels. This will definitely get the towel industry moving. I already don’t leave my toothbrush in the bathroom any more but in my bedroom since I read about the germs coming up and out of the toilet bowl when the toilet flushes and well, there is your toothbrush… That did it. So, maybe I will just buy more towels.
On the other hand, it strikes me that this is overkill. We have all kinds of bacteria around us all the time, one needs to take some precautions but still… your immune system needs to be healthy by developing some immunity against some of this stuff and it can’t do that in a vacuum.