peterboy

Now I finally understand why the ladies are always harping on us guys to put the toilet seat down for them.

THEY sure don't want to be touching them.

MrsKiss

On a show like 20/20 or 60 Mins...sorry, I can't remember which one, they reported how filthy hotel rooms are. With people in and out, with so many people with issues...slobs...a hotel room can be a harbor for germs even with cleaning, the germs are present!! And, face it, most maids have many room...want the job done...and are in and out! I'm exactly like you after seeing the show! I don't use the tub! We did in Punta Cana because it was huge and romantic!!! But, otherwise I haven't. I wear flip flops in the shower!! And, I always have, my parents taught us this early in life when traveling. Who wants foot fungus? The last shower I had in a hotel smelled like piss. I think it was on the shower curtin hem. Eah!! And, that same trip, I was on a workshop with six other women. I told them I wanted to go to K-Mart next to the hotel for flip flops for the shower because I forgot mine, and they all but one purchased a pair to wear in the shower! No, you aren't a freak, just reasonable. I'm not a germ phobic...just don't like the hotel thing.

MrsKiss

Oops. Curtain!!

Marilyn

"I don't use the tub! We did in Punta Cana because it was huge and romantic!!! But, otherwise I haven't."

MrsKiss, I'm sure that the tub in Punta Cana was the one tub in all the hotels in the world that was absolutely antiseptic.

LoveItaly

Too funny Marilyn! And what a funny thread. Guess I am the odd one. I go into a hotel room and never think about all the germs etc. Good heavens, a TV show I saw showed that one of the filthiest things we touch several times a week are grocery store carts. The handles and the inside of the carts where we place our food are often filthy. Especially in areas where the homeless etc. steal the carts. Then the grocery chains pay a company to go around and collect them. And they are brought back to the grocery store "as is". Now that is somthing to gag over. And anybody that uses public transportation certainly knows how filthy that can be. And public restrooms. And some restaurant kitchens. My, it is a scary world out there isn't it? It is a wonder any of us are alive. Cheers!

snowrooster

I'm w/you, LoveItaly, germs are everywhere - not just in the places 60 Minutes and/or Dateline choose to profile. I heard that while most people wash their hands after using a public restroom, there are huge amounts of germs/bacteria on the handle of the door that we all open after washing on the way out!!

ncgrrl

Every couple of years during sweeps, the local tv station will send a health inspector into someone's home and grade it like a restaurant. Most people don't do as great as they think. Meat stored above produce (contamination risk) things uncovered. And then the black light tests. Lots of germs in our homes. But, then again, they're 'our' germs and not a strangers.

If you feel better living in a bubble, go for it.

JJ5

I'm Ms. Clean, and I appreciate those who are- but what about the overflow habits left by some of these OCD people, which the rest of us have to contend with in public spaces.

For example, we have a library patron who takes at least 20 paper towels and uses them and then drops them throughout the facility. She goes to the farthest rest room and waits to be a singular, but I have caught her red-handed this summer.

She would leave a trail of them near everything she had to touch. Believe me, if you work in a public space, this kind of personal litter is not that unusable. And then on the other side you have the complete slobs. That you don't want to know!

Anyone working in a library, hospital, school, restaurant etc. will protect themselves in all kinds of ways, but you couldn't do your job if you went to these extremes.

sunny16

Snowrooster, this is why I have gotten into the habit of using a paper towel to open ladies' room doors on my way out. I always try to throw the towel in the garbage can after the door is open. And I always wash my hands after I've been on the subway if I had to touch anything.

I also try to bring flip flops with me for hotel rooms, but I'm starting to loosen up on that. Back in my hosteling days, when I had to travel extra light, I couldn't fit flip flops in my backpack, but I always powdered my feet after showering and I never got a foot fungus.

hdm

My sister-in-law and her daughter are germ-phobic. My little niece very carefully hovers over the toilet in the mall washroom, scrubs her hands, opens the door with her t-shirt, and then goes out into the food court and eats all that crappy food! She also has no qualms about handling money which has been through a million hands. My sister-in-law won't take a book out of the library because 'who knows who had it last' but thinks nothing of trying on clothes at the mall for hours on end. Everybody has their inconsistencies. I never worry about hotel rooms or public toilets or things like that but I can't bring myself to take a mint or jelly bean on the way out of a restaurant unless it's separately wrapped. I can't help but think that the guy who had his fingers in there just before me didn't wash his hands after peeing.
The thing that gets me is this -- we (in North America) have by far the longest lifespan we've ever had and for the most part of it we're healthy and yet we worry about germs and illness more than any other generation before us.

FainaAgain

"we (in North America) have by far the longest lifespan we've ever had and for the most part of it we're healthy and yet we worry about germs and illness more than any other generation before us." - this is because Americans are sterilized from birth by the manufacturing companies who convince them to use all kinds of anti-bacterial crap they sell.

How many of us know being in the sun is the natural way to fight the germs off? No, the manufacturers convince you to spend big bucks on sunblocks which don't even ward off some types of skin cancer.

hdm

Faina,
It's true what you say about all that anti-bacterial stuff. I can't understand why people use anti-bacterial soap -- soap is naturally anti-bacterial. That's why it doesn't get all green and fuzzy in your soapdish. We need stronger and stronger antibiotics because we're using them so frequently and unnecessarily.

Marilyn

What actually happens with antibiotics is that the bacteria that are resistant to a particular drug survive and reproduce, while those against which the drug is effective are killed and do not reproduce. Gradually, a drug-resistant strain develops. It's a natural process of evolution, but overuse of antibiotics hastens it. And then we get the recurrence of nasty diseases like tuberculosis -- almost wiped out, but now on the upswing again in a drug-resistant form.

You want to worry about "germs?" This is the sort of thing you should be worried about, not catching something from a hotel bedspread or a public restroom door handle. Worry about the next outbreak of influenza, likely to kill millions. Worry, in today's global village, with so many quick and easy avenues for germs to jet set around the world, about the pathetic state of health care in the third world.

I could advance the theory that we worry about the small things because we can't do much about the big ones and they are so much more terrifying.

saharabee

Just to lighten things up a bit -

I hooted so much while reading the ladies public toilet post that a colleague here at the office begged me to cut and paste whatever I was reading and E-mail it to him. He enjoyed it so much that he returned the favour by sharing the following joke with me (you can substitute the names with those of the universities of your choice):


3 male business colleagues at an all day meeting happened to be using the urinals in the Mens Room at the same time.

The first gentleman finished, went to the sink, lathered his arms up to the elbows, rubbed and scrubbed for 3 minutes, rinsed in scalding water for 2 and dried himself thoroughly on an acre of paper towels. Noticing the other 2 staring, he said "Harvard, you know - they taught us to be thorough".

The second gentleman ran water quickly over his finger tips only, dried them on a 1 inch scrap of paper towel and said "Yale - they taught us to be environmentalists".

The final gentle man turned away without washing at all saying "Duke - they taught us not to piss on our hands!"

gyppielou

sahara, yiou are proof that it sometimes better to scroll down and cut to the chase......very funny!!!!!!

sundancer

How do you manage to get an extra sheet?
Do you need to give a reason and is the hotel always understanding? Because I think I may try that as well next time. It's something that has always disturbed me but I never figured out how to solve it. Thanks for the good idea

Meesthare

Great joke, Saharabee! Reminds me of a cartoon (by Kliban, I think) showing a guy coming out of the men's washroom in a restaurant. Above his head, a neon sign is flashing in huge letters "DIDN'T WASH HANDS." Too bad that can't happen in real life.

ilisa

Everyone has their quirks. I don't remove the comforter as soon as we go into a hotel room, but it is always turned waaayyy down before we go to bed so it doesn't come near my face.

My quirk is hotel shower curtains. The thought of one touching me grosses me out, though I can't for the life of me figure out why. I can take the fastest showers on record just to get away from the shower curtain.

Kagie

I am trained in food and beverage sanitation and have worked in the hotel industry for many years.
In a hotel room I do NOT - use the glasses rinsing with hot water is just a waste of water, same for rinsing the tub), take a bath (shower only), use a jacuzzi or sit on/use the top bed covering.
I'm not a germ-a-phobic by any means, I know the business!
To get 3 sheets you usually need to stay in a 4 or 5 star/diamond hotel but it doesn't change anything and is a silly procedure.
You are better off in places that leave the sheets on for your length of stay rather than getting new opportunities for leftover stains/germs and such each day.

OO

I'd forgotten about this thread--it's one of the all time funniest! A classic! Thank you Faina, for starting my day with a good belly laugh.

MrsKiss...that tub in Punta Cana that was so romantic?? That was precisely the tub you should've chosen NOT to use!! LOL oh dear....