Tuesday, November 14, 2006

If you just stop to think... Sometimes you realize just how absurd some people's fears and actions are.

This isn't going to be really deep, but I hope that it causes you to think.

So, on to the topic at hand: I was listening to Laura Ingraham's show one day and she goes off on a rant about someone who didn't wash her hands after using the restroom. And it starts me thinking...

(Why am I sharing this with you? Well, blame it on the anonymity of the internet, but that's another topic.)

Do you wash your hands after you're done with the facilities?

Do you only wash your hands when someone is in the bathroom with you?

Do you touch the knobs with your dirty hands to turn them on and with your clean hands to turn them off?

Do you use a towel to both turn them on and off?

Would it make more sense to turn them on with the towel (thus cleaning them) and off without - or vice versa?

Do you use a towel to open the door on your way out? Do you throw the towel away in the bathroom while holding the door or dispose of it elsewhere?

Did you realize that, on the way into the stall, you touched some of the same spots that previous users touched on their way out of it? You put your fingers on various parts of your clothing. Your pants lay on the floor. You pick them up and put them back on.

Wouldn't it be much more sanitary to wash your hands before you put your pants (skirt/dress for women (and others))? Wouldn't people think you quite strange if they saw you standing at the sink with your clothes around your ankles?

Do you still care? Thanks for your patience. :^)

6 comments:

Bike Bubba said...

Personally, I just don't touch food that others have touched with their left hand.

Mark said...

You're assuming there is something cultural to your use of the left hand. We're not Middle-Eastern, even though you are in Minnesota.

As someone significantly less sinister than you, let me assure you that your assumption may be generally incorrect. :^/

Bike Bubba said...

Shoulda put a smiley face by that comment..... :^)

Seriously to your point, I'm of the impression that most of the really neat bacteria you'll find on your waste stream are going to die in a matter of minutes when they dry out on your clothes or whatever. If you get your relatively moist hands clean of debris, you've probably done enough to be pretty sanitary.

Mark said...

I wondered if you were really serious, but thought that it might be possible that your disability had lead you to believe that there was something natural about using the left hand for toileting...

I've seen my kids eat off the floor - and worse. They're pretty healthy. I tend to not worry about these things. :^)

Mercy Now said...

I always wash my hands except when the bathroom sink is dirtier than my hands like gas station ones.

Mark said...

Yes, but... Do you have an accomplice to open the door for you?