BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 08:00 PM

I suspect that word has got out about how much this bothers you, Wesley, and that those guys did it deliberately just to drive you crazy! It's a conspiracy. Well, don't let them get away with it. Such scumbags deserve to meet their comeuppance. The next time you go to a public washroom, pack a phaser and ZAP every dirty schmuck that dares not to wash his hands after peeing! Set the phaser to "emasculate". That'll show 'em.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: SharonA
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 07:42 PM

Susan: Is that sausage soup? If it's got tomatoes in it too, then I think I know what the women are stirring it with...

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 04:48 PM

Wesley, Wesley, Wesley.... I suppose next you'll want me to wash after I pick my nose, too!

What! You mean baptism DOESN'T cover everything permanently?!?!?

No WONDER our Lord took up foot-washing! But dear Wesley-- even that was only once a year.

Still, I don't mind volunteering at the next church supper for inspection! I'll even post a sign in the kitchen-- "Be sure to wash you weenie before you use it to stir the soup."

OK? That do it?

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: open mike
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 04:06 PM

Utah phillips tells that string story
and it has a spoon in it too..it appears
an efficiency expert visited the cafe'
and found that every time someone dropped
their spoon and asked for a new spoon, the
waiters had to go to the kitchen to get one.
They were instructed to carry a spare spooon
in their pockets for such requests. they also
were told that it was taking entirely too much
time every time they went to the "bathroom" due
to having to wash their hand each time,so the
string thing was rigged up. and the spoon was
used to return the body part into the pants again.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Cluin
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 04:03 PM

I could make a bad joke there, Liz, but I'll refrain in the spirit of the season.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 03:26 PM

How do you know what was on his hands before he went? Or that the infection got in afterwards?

Because the hospital swabbed it and did cultures. And it didn't get in afterwards because it started to sting and water within 10 mins of him poking me in the eye!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 03:14 PM

Heh! At Rolling Thunder's camp in Nevada there were so damn many flies that it was just no use. You had to live with it. They were all over everything, and there was nothing to be done about it. Somehow we survived.

I once tried to kill all the flies in the cook shack. I kept at it for about half an hour with a flyswatter, killing 7 or 8 with every swat, massacred hundreds of them, until one of the women asked me to stop. More damn flies were congregating to eat the remains of the ones I was killing. Useless. Yet, I am here today. Amazing, isn't it?

Given the choice, I much prefer no flies...but I do not fear them.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 03:04 PM

I'm reminded of the story about the rural health worker who tried and tried to get a local farmer to screen his windows (wire gauze to unAmericans). The old guy simply refused, even when the worker told him that the flies even came from the outhouse. "Oh, don't be silly!" was the farmer's response, "All I have to do is put some lime down in there and if there's any problem it's fixed."

Some weeks later, the health worker decided to make one more try. Imagine her surprise to see the entire house was sporting brand new screens on the doors and windows!

"Why did you change your mind?" she asked the farmer, wonderingly.

"Little white tracks on my food," was his only answer.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 02:35 PM

Ha! Now THAT's funny. I wonder what the health inspector would have said about the Lakota Indians eating raw, steaming buffalo entrails (intestines), ripped freshly out of the slain buffalo with one's bare hands?

(shudder)

Well, they seemed to manage fine that way, but times have changed. What we feel comfortable with or not comfortable with has much more to do with our cultural expectations than it does with anything else.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Don Firth
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 02:22 PM

Health inspector walks into a small, hole-in-the wall sandwich shop consisting of nothing but a lunch counter with stools, takes one look, and practically has a heart attack. The place is absolutely filthy. The counter hasn't been wiped, much less actually cleaned, in weeks, behind the counter flies are buzzing around the greasy piles of sandwich fillings, a mop used to swab the floors (Gawd! We won't even talk about the floors!) is propped in the sink along with several huge stacks of food-encrusted dishes waiting to be washed. And the proprietor looks like he's just crawled out of a Dumpster. Nondescript pants with stains down the front and back, a sweat-stained sleeveless undershirt ("vest" to our British friends), greasy hair hanging in his face, five days' growth of beard, and half-moons of God-knows-what under his fingernails. A cigarette dangles from his lips, scattering ashes on the food. There's even mold on the piles of bread scattered on a cutting-board that has what looks like globs of fat on it. Flies everywhere!

The health inspector goes up in flames! He points out monumental list of health violations to the proprietor, gives him a copy of his report and a copy of the health regulations, and tells him, "Now, listen! I ought to shut you down permanently! But if you close your doors right now and promise me that you'll get this pest hole cleaned up—and I mean spotless!—I'll give you a break. I'll be back in a week!"

A week later, the health inspector returns. He finds the place totally transformed. It's as if a miracle has taken place. There is a new sign out front and the windows, previously opaque with grease, are clean. The inspector stands outside and peers through the window in amaze! The counter has been refinished and is lustrously clean, the stools have all been replaced, the floor is spotless. The sandwich meats and other fillings are all in plastic containers, the cutting boards have also been replaced. And behind the counter stands the proprietor. Resplendent in his gleamingly white chef's smock, pants, and hat. He is clean shaven and freshly barbered, and not only are his hands clean, he's wearing rubber gloves.

The inspector watches as the proprietor prepares a sandwich for a customer sitting at the counter. He washes his hands thoroughly with disinfectant soap, pulls a new pair of rubber gloves out of a dispenser, and puts them on. He picks up a pair of stainless steel tongs and uses them to place two slices of bread on a plate he just took from a steaming dishwasher. He uses separate spatulas to spread butter, mayo, and other condiments on the bread, putting them into an autoclave to be sterilized after each use. Then, again with the stainless steel tongs, he adds the cheese, meat, tomato slice, and lettuce, places the top slice of bread on the sandwich, slices it diagonally with a sharp knife, which he also puts into the autoclave, deftly manages to use the tongs to put a stack of potato chips (crisps) on the plate, and then a dill pickle. He then places it before the customer.

His hands, even though clad in rubber gloves, never even touch the sandwich. He does almost everything with the stainless steel tongs.

The inspector is amazed! He enters the shop and expresses his delight at the transformation. The proprietor proceeds to show him around the small shop and points out all the changes he's made and the innovations he has installed, all in the interest of cleanliness. Some of them are quite new and unconventional. The inspector even learns a few things and starts taking copious notes.

Then, he notices a piece of string hanging over the collar of the proprietor's chef's smock.

"What is that?" he asks.

"Oh," says the proprietor, "that's for when I have to go to the bathroom. I wash my hands thoroughly both before and after of course, but still, I don't touch my penis with my hands at all. I have the other end of the string tied around my penis, so when I pull this end, it pops out through my fly and I can do my business. My hands never touch it."

The inspector makes rapid notes. "Amazing. String. Tie to . . . unzip fly . . . pull string. . . ."

"Wait a minute," he says. "When you've finished 'doing your business' as you say . . . how do you get it back into your pants?"

"Simple," says the proprietor. "The tongs."

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: GUEST,Wilbur the Basset Hound
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 01:53 PM

I was not trying to be funny. It's not a funny situation....more a tragic one.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 01:17 PM

There's the pot calling the kettle black!!!

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 01:05 PM

You are also not remotely funny in any of your guises.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: GUEST,Wilbur the Basset Hound
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 12:44 PM

People! They're pathetic. Constantly obsessing about germs and dirt. They live in unaturally antiseptic prisons awash in chemicals and gross, toxic dust from their artificial stuff that is all over the place. The air in their prisons (houses) is stale and lifeless. They fall prey to sickness because their immune systems are totally out of whack from their crazy lifestyle. They are terrified of physical contact with their own kind, except under certain very specific sets of circumstances. They are prudes. They suffer from mental delusions. If I was a human being, I would regard my life as probably not worth living. I would get some "pets", to compensate for my loneliness, and stare at flickering boxes for hours. I would consider myself to be under constant threat.

Thank God I am not a human!

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 12:33 PM

You mean we shouldn't call it the loo or the WC either? Or the necessary room or the powder room or the gents or the ladies?

Mayhap we should instead call it the shitter?

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: GUEST,Bruce Baillie
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 12:16 PM

...wHAT bothers me most about this is why oh why do you Americans refer to the toilet as THE BATHROOM, it's a toilet isn't it? ("...I was in the mens bathroom")or do you urinate in the bath? call it what it is for Gods sake, it's as bad as that other euphamism "We slept together!" when what you really mean is you had intercourse!
TELL IT LIKE IT IS!!!

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 12:01 PM

If anyone shits on my kitchen counters they don't get asked back for dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 11:55 AM

" 4 out of every five doorhandles on public loos have faecal bacteria on them"

Mythbusted... swab any surface anywhere in the world and you'll find faecal bacteria.... Your kitchen counter... your pillow... your knives and forks... The whole world is covered in it...

There's not a single thing you can do to avoid it

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: David C. Carter
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 05:54 AM

We've got those hot air hand dryers in most of the cafés here.No hand towels,I just pull down my sleeve and push/pull at the door.Then I go home and scrub my shirt.And I NEVER touch free nuts,I don't care who they belong to.What is all this!

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Terry K
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 05:47 AM

Lets go a little further. My view is that if you peed on your hands, you would probably not be content to just shake it off, you would want to wash your hands. Ergo, why would you be happy to leave the drops on the end of your willy, merely shaken off and not washed? So I think you should wash your hands always, and your willy whenever practical (you might get some funny looks in the pub loo, for instance).

Moving on to the fecal region, similar principles apply. If you got shit on your hands, would you just wipe it off with a piece of paper, or would you prefer to wash properly? Ergo, what about the vestiges of shit that the paper doesn't remove from your bum? So I think you should wash whenever practical - which probably restricts you to the shower or bidet at home - rather than the basin in the pub loo!

A final thought - most urinals in the UK are auto flushing, but it only seems to happen about once a week. Sur le Continent, the urinals have flush handles which the locals use almost always and the British seem to use almost never.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: GUEST,raggytash
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 05:23 AM

This is the reason I NEVER touch the free nuts, olives, bambay mix that is sometimes put on bars. Where I drink we even have an (Operating) theatre technician who doesn't wash his hands

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Paul Burke
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 03:54 AM

Prime example of post-hoc reasoning Liz. How do you know what was on his hands before he went? Or that the infection got in afterwards?

I avoid the problem by not touching my willy, it sticks out far enough without holding it...

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Jeanie
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 03:44 AM

I totally agree about the flush and door handles, taps etc. One great innovation is those automatic flushes and taps that work just by your waving your hand in front of them.

The biggest "yuk factor" for me are shop assistants who lick their fingers before opening a plastic carrier bag and then put your purchases in - that's particularly horrible in food shops. They may as well just spit on your food !!! Am I alone in finding that repulsive ?

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Cluin
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 02:18 AM

You don't wanna know what's on the toothpicks at the cash register.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 01:27 AM

Rapaire -

One credible theory is that the great polio epidemic was caused by the rapid growth in use of indoor plumbing. Prior to the "cleanliness" movement, constant exposure to the two nonparalytic polio strains kept most people immune to the (then rare) paralytic strain.

The published results of studies showing that immune-related illnesses (asthma, for one) is directly correlated to the absence of pets in the homes of children affected, during the early development of the the childrens' immune systems makes one question whether absolute sanitation is an unmixed blessing.

It still is a bit unpleasant to shake hands with someone with sticky fingers though.

John

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 08:48 PM

They died, Richard. They died. Look at the death statistics for cholera, typhoid, and other diseases spread by fecal materials. And I'm old enough to remember polio, which is spread by fecal contamination.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 08:45 PM

As Rap said, washing one's hands is the one best way to keep from spreading germs.

Sage, I heard a health expert on TV make that point. He said that if we saw what he has seen under his microscope we would be scouring not only our own hands but standing there and insisting that others do the same.

He also said that upon exit one should pull open the door with the paper towel we dried with - and then drop the towel outside the door. The interviewer said, But what if there's no receptacle there?

The health official said, Trust me. They will put one there.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Firecat
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 07:48 PM

It makes me sick when people don't wash their hands after using a public loo. Don't they know that 4 out of every five doorhandles on public loos have faecal bacteria on them???

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 06:20 PM

If all of this is all that important - how did the human race survive until now, or is it that we have become weaker?

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 05:01 PM

Yup. I usually wash my hands before going into the restroom stall to avoid giving myself something from all of the things I've touched as I shop. Hand washing after also makes sense, because then you have the paper towel in your hand, after drying, that you can use to open the washroom door (then dispose of the towel near the drinking fountain that is usually near the restroom and usually has a trash can nearby.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 04:43 PM

Proper hand washing is considered to be, by most authorities, the simplest and cheapest public health technique around.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 04:39 PM

I got poked in the eye by a guy who'd just come back from the bathroom..... eye went all red, watered and ended up with an infection and I had to wear an eyepatch and use drops/ointment for a week afterwards....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Jeri
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 03:26 PM

I used to inspect food facilities. One of the things we did, for training purposes only, was to do cultures on people's fingertips. We'd grow out all kinds of stuff from folks who claimed to have just washed their hands.

One of the main reasons, I believe, is a thing I see women doing in rest rooms: they stick their hands under the water for a few seconds and dry. I suppose they think it looks proper, but they're just giving the little buggers a drink - it's the soap that kills them and makes them let loose of your hands and gurgle down the drain. Not so bad as long as they aren't making your dinner because there likely isn't enough bacteria in a handshake to make you sick. They're probably more of a danger to themselves and their families by carrying viruses they got from the handles, doorknobs, counters, telephones, the coffee pot and (in the case of 'rinsers') faucet controls.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 03:00 PM

I'll agree on the defecation bit, Rapaire. Most definitely.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:57 PM

This is not something, frankly, that worries me much. If at all. I wash my hands in the washroom not because I am afraid of germs (mine or someone else's), etc...but because it is customary. I guess I am doing it mostly for the sake of people like you, Wesley. ;-) I am almost never afraid of germs, and I do not regard my own penis as being dirty...nor do I worry about other men's penises either. I simply don't care.

It's people that worry me. People can totally mess up your whole day. They have demands and expectations. Better to just wash your hands and then they will maybe leave you alone...(my experience as a kid) Children are basically terrorized into doing a lot of the stuff that eventually becomes habitual. Some of it makes sense, some of it doesn't.

If penises are so shockingly dirty, then why do people's lovers seem to really enjoy touching them, and...etc...? I won't go into details, but it all seems kind of psychologically driven to me, rather than having much to do with actual health issues.

Why are men so afraid of other men's penises? Fear of latent homosexuality or what? What's the big deal?

People make up their own minds about how they feel about things first...then they interpret the "facts" according to their own convenience and prejudice. Dogs are not the least bit afraid of "dirt". They like it. That's because it never occured to them that it was "dirty". They do, however, recoil from toxic chemicals...which ARE harmful...like oven cleaner, gasoline, model airplane glue, etc... Maybe they are smarter than we are. ;-)

Lest you misunderstand, though...I do appreciate cleanliness about as much as most other people seem to. How much of that came naturally and how much was acquired from social conditioning, I'm not sure.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:43 PM

It's good practice to spend 20 seconds washing your hands with soap and water and rinsing them well. Even assuming that you don't have a disease you can contact when you touch your...organ...handwashing is a good way to cut down on the transmission of bacteria and viruses and washing after urinating is a good reminder to do it.

Washing well after defecation should be a must. Diseases from polio to typhoid to cholera to E.Coli to are spread by fecal material -- if not yours, someone elses. And don't tell me you don't shit on your hands, either!

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:37 PM

"because I touched the flush handle on the urinal"

Hear-fkn-hear!

I have chums who are finishing their basement and she's letting him put a urinal down there... gross....

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:35 PM

I always wash my hands after using a public restroom. Not because I touched my willy, but because I touched the flush handle on the urinal and the guy who touched it before me touched his willy.

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:28 PM

Human urine is inert and virtually sterile when it leaves the body....

http://www.rotten.com/library/medicine/bodily-functions/pissing/

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Big Mick
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:14 PM

I always wash my hands before I go to the bathroom so's I don't get my weewee dirty .......***snerk***.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: GUEST,Bizibod
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:14 PM

I'm sorry to say that this does also happen in the Ladies. Time to freshen up lipstick , and run fingers through hair - HEY! maybe that works just as well as soap and water ! Me , I could no more NOT wash my hands than walk out wearing my pants on my head .

Subject: RE: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 01:44 PM

I was taught not to piss on my hands.

Subject: BS: YUK - Wash your hands - please !
From: Wesley S
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 01:34 PM

Well - I saw it again the other night. I'm in the mens bathroom and I see that a large percentage of men walk out and just don't wash their hands after using the toilet. And a few minutes later I see them out in the lobby shaking hands with friends or holding hands with their wife/girlfriend/whatever. So - What's up with that ?

I'd love to hear from some of the guys that don't think they need to wash their hands - even if you have to sign in as a guest. So - is your Johnson the cleanest one in the world - and the 30 seconds it takes to wash your hands a waste of time ? Are you willing to shake the hand of a guy who was just shaking his Willie a few minutes ago ?

And ladies - please tell me this never happens in the ladies restroom. Or does it ?

I'm sure some of you think I'm a prude. Feel free to tell me so. I'd love to hear your reasons why. Or does this gross you out too ?

My rant is over. The air is getting a little thin up here on this soapbox.