I saw some guy use a handkerchief to blow his nose the other day. He pulled it out of his back pocket, blew a bunch of snot into it, looked at it, folded it back up, and put it into his pocket. I have some questions about this procedure.
What happens next time these people go to use their handkerchiefs? Do they have to pick a ‘fresh’ spot?? Do they ‘refold’ it, like toilet paper???
And how are mucus-encrusted handkerchiefs washed- separately, or with all of their other clothes?
When the mucus dries out, wouldn’t the germs become aerosolized? Isn’t this practice a public health hazard??
Its always best to check whats coming out of your body! When I was a kid cloth handkerchiefs were the norm in England, and I always thought they were kind of gross. You had to keep looking for a clean patch to use, and at the end of the day the hing would set as if in cement. Cant remember whether my mother washed them separately, laundering is an alien world to a young kid. Since my teenage years its been tissues all the way, and snot-rags are a thing of the past.
Toilet paper is refolded? Isn`t that taking parsimony a step too far?
Mr. S says his mother used to boil his dad’s handkerchiefs before washing them – presumably to loosen the mucus. Ugh. (I hope she used a separate pot!)
Cloth hankies are common around the world except here, the US, and some other countries. The reason being our widespread use of anti-histamines and decongestants. Over 50% of the US population is one these two which prevents use of a snot rags, us sniffling and sneezing, hacking up snot, and the like.
Some place in europe hankies are everywhere, people are hacking and spitting, blowing their nose, etc. Since, they don’t use anti-histamines as much. They are afraid of any medical side-affects and just spit everywhere inseatd. Which, is oh, so much better.
My mother often taking hers from her purse (unused!), wetting it with her tongue, and scrubbing the hell out of my face in public when I was a kid.
Tony Handcock’s “Blood Donor” sketch, wherein he reads a public health poster which says “Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases,” and begins to sing to the tune of ‘Deutchland Uber Alles,’ “Coughs and sneezes spread diseases / Trap the germs in your handkerchief…”
(Voice Of Reason) Let’s not go over the deep ending, folkses. If we didn’t have hankies, we’d be without panky. (/Voice Of Reason)
We are humans. It would be nice if the stuff that oozes and squirts out of our bodies was cute and smelled pleasant. It isn’t and it doesn’t. We don’t gain anything by going into paroxysms of nausea and disgust over snot. Revulsion over snot is right up there with making the young women stay outside the village until their menstrual cycles had passed. (Grabbing the reader by the shirt) Stand up and be a Modern Human!
Well, really. When various bodily fluids are leaking from one’s face, what are the alternatives?[ul]
[li]Walk around sniffling and snorting to cram it back in, and hope I don’t sneeze.[/li][li]Lean over and blow my nose with my fingers, hoping not to get any on me or others in the process.[/li][li]Blow my nose on curtains, sheets, tablecloths, napkins, etc.[/li][li]Make sure that everywhere I go there are tissues available.[/li][li]Keep a package of disposable tissues on me at all times, and hope there’s a place to throw them away. Holding a handful of nasty paper whle riding Space Mountain isn’t that fun.[/li][li]Keep a heavy-duty non-disposable tissue with me for later use - a hankerchief.[/li][/ul]While ideally, the best answer would be to take something so as not to have leakage, you should have a back-up plan. “Be Prepared” and all that.
This reminds me of when I went to see Bean: people went “Eew!” becasue he was using a hankerchief, assuming that he was collecting his snot because he’s so crazy.
I frequently carry a cloth handkerchief in my pocket. Between allergies and general sinus problems, my nose is always running, and you have no idea how much freakin’ Kleenex I would go through if I used one every time I had to blow my nose. I’d have to carry at least two “pocket packs” with my everywhere I went.
The strategy lies in the folding of the cloth. If you plan it right, you can do some creative origami to ensure you always have a dry spot for your hands and a new dry spot for your nose.
And you can’t tell me the things you wash out of a handkerchief are soooooo much worse than what you wash out of underwear.
This reminds me of something my friend said. He’s a Chemical Engineer working at P&G making papers of all sorts. P&G and their competitors are spending a lot of money to introduce underdeveloped countries to the benefits of disposable hygiene-related products. Aparently once a society achieves a level of hygine, they never regress, insuring life-long markets. I’m sure that all those folks using handkerchiefs just found some way to make do. Myself, like a fool, spends $3 a month on a thin paper product that I can throw away because ‘I can’t imagine doing it any less sanitary’.
I’ve used handkerchiefs (or handkerchieves, as you prefer) infrequently over the years. When you’ve got a little drip, brought on by allergies or the tail end of a cold, they’re invaluable for keeping your nose dry. When you’re in the middle of a daytime hacking wheezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you can infect your teeming coworkers flu, I wouldn’t recommend them, they get nasty quickly.
Handkerchiefs are also used for non-nasal purposes: drying teary eyes, as someone’s already noted, or mopping a sweating scalp. They also look natty when folded neatly and placed in one’s breast pocket.
A true gentleman will carry two handkerchiefs – one for personal use, another for decoration and suavely offering to ladies in need. You shouldn’t have to inspect an offered hanky, at least not obviously.
Exactly, Dragonblink. When I read the OP, I thought to myself, “Gee, do people get this worked up over washing their sheets after sex?” Of course, I’m sure that Kimberly-Clark is working on disposable paper bedsheets as we speak.
My dad uses handkercheives. They’re washed with the rest of the family laundry. Ironed, too.
