Are you really going to use that?

At a restaurant there is normally salt and pepper on the table right? The salt and pepper shakers placed at each table are not switched out after each customer completes a meal and new customers are seated. Instead, the same S&P shakers are made available for the next eager eater. To me this seems absolutely fine. I have no problem using the same salt or pepper shaker as the person before me. It isn’t like the previous patron was handling each individual grain of salt or ground piece of pepper. In most cases the actual spices aren’t even touched by a human hand. My point, communal spice shakers/grinders are absolutely acceptable at a public eatery.


The gym at home has a shower area in the locker room. It is a large room with around 10 prison style showers. By prison style I just mean there are no dividers or anything between shower heads, it is just one wide open room. Below each shower head is a soap dish. In each soap dish there is a yellow bar of soap. For some time I always assumed that each bar of soap belonged to certain gym regulars and because of the frequency with which they used the gym facilities they were able to just leave their own bars of soap in the shower room knowing they would be back every day to use it. I did think it was a bit curious that all the bars of soap appeared to be the same brand, scent, color, but I figured it must have been because they acquired their body cleansing bar from the gym itself, which of course only sells one particular brand of soap. This was not the case. The bars of soap were communal. This brings up a number of concerns. It must violate some sort of health code right? I often wondered if anyone actually used the bars. Thanks to keen observation of new body hairs on suspect bars, I discovered that people actually do wash with the bars. But who? Who would use a public bar of soap to wash their most private body parts? I have discussed the matter with many people and have yet to find anyone who admits to using the public bar. Unlike, the salt and pepper shakers mentioned above, I believe there are many reasons why soap should not be a communal item. I recently received an email from a friend who had a close encounter with the yellow bars of soap in the gym shower room. With his permission I am sharing this email. Some may recognize the author by his Italian pseudonym. Here it is:


Dearest Solomon,

The other day I found myself in a bit of a pickle. I had just finished playing a friendly match of football at the YMCA when I was faced with a rather inconvenient situation. As I was heading for the wash room, I discovered that I had forgotten my bath soap at home. Slightly fluttered, I continued to the wash room knowing full well that a cleaning without soap would be better than no cleaning at all. After channeling all mental fortitude to divert my gaze from the unsettling hairy man already in the wash room, I chose a shower and adjusted the water temperature accordingly. Still mildly agitated by the absence of any cleaning products, I entertained the notion that I could have more cleanliness than water alone had to offer- and then it happened. I looked down and saw the answer to my conundrum in all its golden and pasty glory. A solitary bar of generic house soap...

Fortunately, I came to my senses before the unthinkable happened. I don't know if it was the sight of the pubic hairs molded into the soap or the thought of the dark nether regions the bar had previously trespassed, but something wrestled me away from the brink of insanity. Though I did not perpetrate what is surely one of the most unholy acts known to man, I feel a great shame for even considering it. I write to you with a heavy heart and hope your opinion of me is not so diminished that our friendship will be irreparably damaged. I simply had to bare my soul to someone, for the guilt has been tearing me apart. While this confession does provide me with a faint reprieve, I still feel I shall carry a mark of shame until the end of my days on this earth.

Regretfully Yours,
The Pizza Man



In Other News:

I celebrated the last night of Hanukkah at Lake Vida. It was glorious.

Living quarters at Lake Vida

This is a picture of a sand dune on one side of the lake. Pretty Bizzarro to see a sand dune with glaciers behind it.

Slinging loads of crap out of the camp. We build sling loads of various camp gear and then hook it to a helicopter that flys it out of the field and back to the McMurdo

Leah and I celebrating a successful camp takeout.

View of the open water from the helicopter. I especially like the way the ice breaks off the edge in crazy shapes.

De-flagging party. We set out to de-flag the sea ice road last week. The sea ice is melting quickly and no longer considered safe for travel. The flags are out and the route is basically closed.

A Weddell seal popping out of its ice hole.

Of course, the stereotypical penguin picture. These are emperors.