The Soap Diaries #1: “let there be no leaders, let each help the other with what they know best.”
“… If my tone is irritating; you may take it that I am irritated.” Mr. Sherlock Holmes
Becoming furious, with the lies and deceptions coming from the administration and minions , and the pure sensationalism & repetition of those lies by those exhibitionists purporting to be journalists, I began the “SOAP DIARIES”. My own investigation into how to survive this stuff not by repeating what one person says, but checking at least three sources. The last check is always our good sense.
The simple is not always true, complexity can become confusion. So we work with each other in good faith. The sooner we develop a new safe norm; the sooner we go back to work.
We have to quit smoking. There is no citizen’s right to smoke. And certainly there is no right to make others sick with “secondhand smoke”. Our habits must be adapted to suit our healthy environment not that of viral particles. My thought is to begin simply avoid the weaselry. Yesterday I learned an important, illuminating point from Mark Caruso in a Facebook conversation. “… This is dangerous.” Why didn’t you begin with that. He’s right and so am I. Both of us together produce a better point. We can’t skip the important point. Nor can the sensationalism of Fox , in the New York Times, the sloppiness of NPR, allow us to bypass the logical steps. This is dangerous. Masks, distancing, disinfecting.
Destroying this poison, and it’s not alive, requires the understanding the sequence & its sister: consequence. If we skip the simple stuff we build our house on sand, beyond that , as on the old maps:“there be dragons”. We are not going to do that. We need to take back our ground. All of us together
What I know best is journalism and communication. I’m home at Splinter Cottage, the 250-year-old cabin atelier, library, and kitchen where my profession’s been conducted since the early 80s. I have my tools and intentions, and those intentions are for my neighbors to be safe, well, and happy again. Let me begin my point of the conversation on the small points, we can all be sure of, but like smoking we have to learn our life will be better with healthy sanitary practices.
In other times, I would’ve been hired to produce public service announcements. We live with both journalism and communications that see the occasioning of hysteria is considered the beginning of a career and thoughtfulness seems assumed to be laziness.
These were produced for publication on my Facebook pages, and contain the best information I was able to find at the time. As I mentioned in the subhead, people must be smarter than their leaders, when their leaders are trying to cover their asses and they are stupid enough to suggest drinking bleach. What is here I got from CDC, various research universities that seem reliable, and whose behavior and statements coexist with other reliable sources. Then ran it by others who edit professionally/
SOAP DIARIES 2: The blue jeans and breakfast bacon fat riff.
… friction, emulsification and down the drain.
My earlier comparison of removing “breakfast bacon fat from blue jeans after a day on the playground and school” has passed muster with professionals I’ve communicated with. A compassion of the sticky fat of this virus.
If soap works to kill the virus on the skin of your hands, why would it not work on clothing that will touch your skin? leting it soak longer before cycle won’t hurt. 80 degrees doesn’t kill it in Australia … just makes certain laundry soaps dissolve better … the soap attacks the fat like structure of the virus and it comes apart.
We all learned as children that germs on around where it was dirty. “Dirt” is all sorts of things something thing to also something to shelter organisms and biological poisons from everything that causes them to deteriorate. From ultraviolet light to disinfectants.
Soap and water is used to dissolve the surface protection that dirt provides and get you whatever will poison us. The virus is not alive, so it is not a question of doing battle killing it, it is a matter of rendering it harmless. The covid 19 virus, apparently has a fatty exterior that holds it together. Like the dirt it can bond and stick to and remain virolent is susceptible to all the normal emulsifiers of fat. Well the particles will lose their ability to sicken after a period of time, it only makes sense to get than the hell out of our way as soon as possible ( various surfaces can harbor the viral particles for different periods of time). I don’t know why currently but I’ll find out.
The recommended time for handwashing is at least 20 seconds with friction and soap using running water. (As I spent time in cholera areas, let’s make a point that means clean water. For the most part we still have that United States.) clearly more than 20 seconds is better than 20 seconds.
In Taiwan, when hand washing stations were placed in the hallways of the hospital wards, the effectiveness of not transmitting sickness was scientifically and markedly demonstrated.. The kind of soap is not particularly important, as the information I’ve seen is whatever dissolves that fat removes the contagion.
Most nurses will tell you in training they learned that the friction applied to the alcohol soaked cotton ball is as important to cleaning the surface of the arm as the alcohol itself. Seems it’s reasonable to believe the same would exist in hand washing.
The purpose here is to furnish the “why” along with the why so we can all make informed judgments.
bluejeans, returning to the original metaphor, ….. butter, bacon fat, &c. found its way bluejeans that were absolutely clean 15 minutes before breakfast. (I’m Pennsylvania Dutch so my sons jeans or washed every night as I was fully conscious of what would be clinging to the fat wiped on his jeans as breakfast ritual. )
All chemistry is a combination of ingredients added together usually controlled by time. I’m a photographer, and to spend a great deal of kind and laboratories, for my business and professionally. If I don’t want to introduce hot water to jeans, I will soak them in good soap for a longer period of time.
Clothing & porous material is said to have a fairly short support period for this virus … but much longer for hard surfaces. Like buttons, zips, synthetics … again the assumption is that a pair of jeans is fine if it sets over nite … but the hard surfaces tend to be what we handle. As virus is one of the smallest materials … it doesn’t need lot of space.
THE METAL BUTTON OR ZIP ETC NEEDS CLEANING LONG AFTER THE CLOTH. As such as standard cleaning protocol makes more sense for everything. Our hands are not a universal model. We clean them as they are transfer agents to our face. (And wash faces and glasses for the same reason as part of the same clean up. )
As in all cleaning, we clean the entire piece of clothing and if the water is colder, I allow it to soak longer … We have all soaked grease stains.
These particular grease stains are likely more dangerous than any others run into before.
SOAP DIARIES #3 we have some habits to change, a few of the old ones have become dangerous…
As we have some habits to change, a few of the old ones have become dangerous, seems a few reminders are good for our conversation. For years I did a whole pile public information as in such for IBM & the agencies, seems now is as good a time to start as ever. And the quickest sentences for reminder are photographs. Since we are at Splinter Cottage, the 250-year-old cabin atelier, combining studio, library, and kitchen, seemed a good place to walk around and start,
As a nation within the world, we are involved in the larger problem than we ever seen before in our lifetime. To see places like the Mayo Clinic allowing an unconscionable politician to be the only person walking through the entire facility without a mask is beyond comprehension. Both the doctors and even the politician have taken an oath.
To see those politicians touring medical facilities where masks were worn before plague, without a mask but with eye protection is also beyond comprehension. Clearly there is no comprehension of the difficulties they create or that the public health is more important than their political publicity.
Once this kind of publicity would be the end of someone’s political career -in any rational society. Or a society in which the educational system (the person seen in these unconscionable publicity photos have them highest University training in the land. taught the sanctity of oaths & personal veracity (truth).
It’s important to understand that politicizing of viral poison is for despicable characters, willing to kill her parents and children from their own corruption. They have exposed the worst they could offer and we can assume they had learned all by previous corruption. Leaders who endanger everyone by their activities are not leaders. The headline at beginning was told to me from my days at the Inquirer magazine, when I was doing a story on unconscionable environmental behavior. As a matter of fact it was written on a sign posted in the woods near a river… I photographed the careful handwritten calligraphy and wrote down the words is all those generations ago I had no question its application would arrive again.
SOAP DIARIES #4 … a few things to remember
Bud wrote me the other day and asked if he could share the first, and that is what they are for (thanks Bud, as usual you are honest). These are released for person-to-person notes … Good wishes from a friend .. Human rights and permissions are listed at the bottom of the post as usual. Let’s open up conversation, keep ourselves safe, take care of our neighbors, and recognize the BS crew for what they are. After we get out of this mess the happier we will be.
Be safe and healthy. Thoughts, good ones, for us all. Like the old IBM moto I worked under for may years: “THINK”. That is our defense and offense. Take Care. Scott (Spike with a twist, Margarita Beatrice -like Dante’s friend –, and Mlle. Pernod)
PS. I have another piece on disinfectants …. for the present and excerpts :
“MANY DISINFECTANTS CAN RUIN SEPTIC SYSTEMS … AS IN SHOT. READ,READ,READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. LIKE THE VIRUS THEY ARE NEITHER “GOOD NOR BAD”. THEY DON’T THINK …THEY KILL ALL BACTERIA … THOSE WE NEED AND THOSE WE DON’T. “
“….. chemical disinfectants like lysol will disinfect without ruining and bleaching clothing. but is is necessary to wash and rinse clear. All chemicals require contact time … like developing film .. this is the difference between sanitizing and disinfecting. On the back of every bottle is a list of both dilutions and time to accomplish our intentions. Follow instructions as with a cake mix. Normal safe house hold dilutions are around 6 minute … allthe spray and wipe “youtube experts” don’t know what they are doing and obviously haven’t read the packaging for these really serious chemicals. Be wise. Read& Think.
© h scott heist 20/SplinterCottage.com.
These are public service announcements, available to all private parties for the duration of this mess. I still own them as my creation, so the terms are: they may not be cropped nor changed. They’re not available for commercial purposes to corporations or institutions without the the normal permissions listed in the Meta Data via Facebook messenger to me. I too am out of work. Please let me know if there’s an error, I WILL CHANGE IT. Toute de Suite as in right away. They are opinions & I cannot be responsible for how they are used by another.
This work is the property and creation of H. Scott Heist and rights are reserved. Splinter Cottage, The View From Splinter Cottage, the NOIR CHRONICLES, TastefullyCheeky, ObliviAn, and Every Day is a Short Story are trademarks in use for many years. Rights are similarly reserved and use is only by written permission.