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Your guest Katherine Ashenburg mentioned that the bidet is an Italian invention. Actually, it is not. The first bidet was invented in France by Marc-Antoine Jacoud.

And Gene is absolutely right about being exposed to germs as part of building our immunity. We are getting way too worried about germs.
Though I probably should wash my hands more than I do...

I got talking to my coworkers one day about laundry; specifically, how many times we'd wear a pair of jeans before we washed them (assuming we hadn't spilled anything on them). I was aghast to find that a few of my coworkers washed them after one or two wearings. There is no practical reason to wash clothes as often as most people do. I don't know whether it's a fear of germs or of giving offense to the nose, but the manufacturers of all kinds of cleaning products etc. certainly take advantage of our anxiety and insecurity about health and personal hygiene.

My 2 pro-dirt, pro-smell comments are not meant to diminish the truth of the plain-soap-and-water hand-washing recommendations.

THAT is a proven, excellent disease-prevention practice.

As an oldster, I don't mind the rare BO smell. I kind of like it--it brings me back to the old days, when workers _really_ worked, and filled public transportation.

It surprises me that caller Alexis from Latvia hasn't gotten used to the smell yet. He may. In fact, when he returns to the US, he'll probably have a similar reaction to mine.

"Ah, that smell--it reminds me of Latvia!"

Kids _should_ get dirty, should be exposed to things in the first 6 years of life, while they still possess a part of their mother's immunity.

Whenever I hear of this obsession with sterility--especially among new parents--I think of the polio outbreaks of the 20th century, and of FDR.

FDR was raised in an antiseptic environment, whereas for millennia most people had an almost daily exposure to poop and the polio virus in it.

Most kids, with the aid of their mom's immunity, developed their own resistance upon exposure. FDR, as an adult with no childhood exposure, had no protection.

The post-WWII clean revolution resulted in the horrible polio epidemic.

Just wondered if the author was familiar with 'The Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste,” introduction by Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992).
This is an equally fascinating book from a curator of the Cooper Hewitt Museum.

I hear a lot about the importance of washing hands - using hot soapy water. But what I'm finding more and more when I'm out and about are automated sinks that do not allow me to increase the water temperature. So many of them a luke warm at best.

Doesn't anybody ever talk about a "whore's bath" any more? I was taught by my mother (who hated cleaning the bathroom, plus I've always had dry skin)to NOT shower every day, and on the off days, just wash under my arms and "private" area(s) using a washcloth and/or small container to hold water (since we don't have bidets in this country). Saves time, water, & keeps oils on your skin.

As she mentioned bidets, I'm all for them. The biggest problem with using a bidet is getting the temperature right.

True comments about Brazilians. They do shower twice a day and clean the floors of their bathroom and kitchen, if not all rooms, every day. I've heard comments from Latin men that American women are dirty and unclean compared to Latin women. On the other hand, a former paramour, a Spaniard, complained that I showered too much and that it was so typically American to be concerned with cleanliness and body odor. "We're just animals," he said.

Although cleanliness may be next to godliness, excessive obsession with being free of microbes and dirt is dangerous. Ms. Ashenberg statement not to worry about washing one's hands too much unfortunately is taken to extremes in other areas of cleanliness. The proliferation of anti-bacterial, anti-viral preparations -- dish detergent?? -- allows us to live in a near-spotless environment, but what happens when one goes out into the real world?

We need to be exposed and get a little sick from what's flying around out there to keep our bodies healthy -- especially our immune system. I put my faith more in the hygiene hypothesis and not in Johnson $ Johnson.

Of course we don't want to cause a recession buy pulling too much of our "clean" money out of the economy! :-)

To this day I am self-conscious, maybe even paranoid, of the odor of garlic possibly on my being (and I use very little of it in cooking). We Italians were always scorned for smelling of garlic--among other things--in the days before Emeril made it "chic" shall I say, to eat lots of garlic. But I am very self-conscious of it still today.

I read a book by Frank Sinatra’s butler recently, and he said Sinatra was a clean freak. He took several showers a day, and was fastidious when it came to his cloths.

I think there's a certain "psychology of the shower" that is separate from getting clean. If I take a second shower in a day, it's usually to "revive" physically and mentally. Or sometimes in winter I feel chilled off and I enjoy a soak or shower to warm up. Soap doesn't come into play....

MY GIRLFRIEND LIVES IN THE CAPITAL OF BRAZIL AND THERE THEY SHOWER AT LEAST TWICE A DAY. tHEY BRUCH THEIR TEETH AFTER EVERY MEAL AND THEY USUALLY HAVE SOMEONE CLEAN THEIR APARTMENT VERY OFTEN.

I lived in France for over 2 years and never found them overly redolent, even on the métro. I have heard Thais and Brazilians complain about the low frequency of bathing in the U.S., however.

I not only hear about how Mexicans, in particular, are dirty but I still overhear how Italians smell and this is a century after the waves.

A couple years ago I stopped using anti-bacterial soaps and wipes and hand sanitizers. I also stopped using bleach-based cleaning products and switched to organic or home-made cleaning products. During cold and flu season I make an extra effort to wipe down commonly-used surfaces like doorknobs, phones, toys, counters, appliance handles, etc but just with soap-and-water solutions.

Results? Haven't taken my kids to the doctor for a cough, cold or sinus infection in 2 years.

Have you seen commercials lately. Sometimes I think its all about selling products. It make it seem that kids are the worst carries of germs. It's all about selling products.

It's ironic that as people get more and more fanatic about germs, kids use tissues less and less. It seems almost no parents teach their children about using one.

what about women who hover over the toilet seat thereby peeing all over it and forcing the next person to hover as well

Good-bye Doctoroff...NEEEXT.

It's not the washing so much that's the turn-off it's the obsession and overuse of perfumes that really makes for an even just as disgusting "smell" on the body. There ought to be laws against the overuse of these parfumes. Body odor can most certainly be sexual attracting, I would say that's one of it's functions in nature. I find over-perfumed people as offensive as over stinky people, maybe even more offensive.