pan6467

That's why when I wash I always either pull the paper towels down first or with my elbow afterward........ then I use the paper towel to turn off the water and open the door after I dried my hands.

Not that I'm a clean freak, it's just the way my dad always taught me when I was a kid and would go with him.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Suave

This is my rule for proper bathroom hygiene: if you touched your dick, wash your hands. If you can miraculously whip it out without touching it, urinate, and get it back into your pants without touching your penis, then you have my blessing to not wash your hands. Obviously hands must be washed if anything involving the ass occurs.

Think of it this way (arguing against the "touching my arm" statement): if I accidentally brush you with my arm, no big deal right? What if I rub my naked cock on you? That's a little different, isn't it?

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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

braisler

I love the false science bullshit study that started this thread. They say that they have an investigator basically watching and waiting in the restroom to see if people wash their hands??!??! WTF. It is quite predictable that women or men are more likely to wash their hands when someone else is in the restroom at the same time. Peer-pressure? Social constraints? It is just a plain fact! My guess would be that the "study" (and I use that term loosely) vastly overestimates the number of women and men who wash after eliminating.

As another poster mentions above, many people wash up in a public restroom while they don't wash every time at home.

To paraphrase George Carlin: The only time I wash my hands in the bathroom is when I actually shit on them.

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You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
- Albert Einstein
---

Janey

And if hygeine (perceived or real) is not enough, it once again really all comes down to manners and good breeding. This is so often the line that separates.

Jinn

Good breeding? What are we, dogs? I also didn't know that manners meant I had to have an irrational fear of nonexistant germs.

Manners, to me, means saying "Please" and "Thank You" and things of that nature. I betcha Gahndi didn't wash his hands every time he pissed, do you think he had "bad manners" or "bad breeding?"

I mean 8 or 10 steps of "cleaning" after taking a pee? Are you fuckin' serious? You people disgust me with your irrational fears.. In the last 15 years, I've been sick less than 20 times. I ASSURE you that wasn't because I took the 12-steps-to-cleanliness approach on everything that I did.

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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

aberkok

"...and that only happens, once or twice a week...maximum!"

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!check out my new blog! http://arkanamusic.wordpress.com

Warden Gentiles: "It? Perfectly innocent. But I can see how, if our roles were reversed, I might have you beaten with a pillowcase full of batteries."

Janey

Breeding means passing on proper behaviour and comportment from parent to child. My parents always drilled it into me that you only have one chance to make a first impression. If you want to be percieved to be a civilized member of society then well, you should learn the manners that go along with it. If not, then you run the risk of poor first impressions. If it's not important to you, well then obviously manners are not as well.

Manners go beyond pleases and thankyous. Manners go to the point of acquiting yourself in society to the point where you don't cause others to cringe in such situations like ' ewww should i be afraid to shake his hand??' In short, it's about a non-egocentric perspective.

If It's always about you, then you wont understand. If it's not always about you, then you will be empathetic.

No we aren't dogs, to answer your question. But then again neither are we animals who cannot pass on mannerly behaviour. Breeding means that you are able to learn from those who have been charged with your upbringing. Oh, and by the way, manners also does not mean that you have to have an irrational fear of anything. But having them would go a long way to helping others to assuage their concerns...

pig

yeah, if i see some guy (or girl) giving themselves the old "adjustment" and reach out to shake my hand...it may be irrational. i may not make any sense. their urine may not only be "clean," hell, it might be totally awesome in shade, tone, taste and odor. i don't care. all of these issues are completely outside the level at which I'm concerned about this. I'm not crazy about shaking.

Jinn, let me ask you this. Let's say you were peeing off the balcony of your favorite hotel. Just as you start to drain, your girlfriend walks out from below, and looks up at you with adoration to ask you if you feel like going for a walk. You pee in her mouth. Just a little. She's not really enthused. Or maybe she is. Let me ask you this. Do you want to go down and kiss her, right then and there? I mean, it's clean. It's antiseptic. It's irrational. Do you want her to brush her teeth first?

You know, in fact - a lot of manners could be seen as being irrational, in the sense that you mean it...shaking hands? Stupid. yes sir, yes ma'am? stupid. holding the door for someone else? stupid. I think we do these things to show our respect for others in society...and i'm moving the "keep your sloughed off dick cells off my hands" idea into this category. Maybe it's just me

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You don't love me, you just love my piggy style

Jinn

If she'd still have me after something like that, then no I wouldn't mind. Saying please and thank you isn't irrational or stupid, it conveys the thanks and appreciation you have for recieving the thanks. It allows us to get on in a civilized society, much like Janey said. There's a difference between showing appreciation for your fellow man (or woman) by being polite and civilized, and living a life in fear of the fluids of yourself or another. As a matter of fact, I could see an argument that being so paralyzed in fear of your own or another person's fluids is in fact the rude, "uncultured" response. How would you feel if you shook someone's hand and they wiped it off on their pants afterwards? That's not showing you much respect, now is it?

P.S. Janey, you taught me a new word. Comportment. I like it.

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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

Jinn

http://www.adaa.org/AnxietyDisorderInfor/OCD.cfm

"Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is characterized by uncontrollable obsessions and compulsions which the sufferer usually recognizes as being excessive or unreasonable. Obsessions are recurring thoughts or impulses that are intrusive or inappropriate and cause the sufferer anxiety. Some common obsessions are:

Thoughts about contamination, for example, when an individual fears coming into contact with dirt, germs or "unclean" objects"

I'm not suggesting any of you are OCD, but its an interesting resource for those of you truly living in fear..

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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

pig

If I just watched 'em take a leak and not wash up, then they'd just have to live it...and I'd call 'em out on it if they got too "pissy" about it...god, bad pun, bad pun. As far as the other post...if being OCD (about penile detritus) is wrong, I don't wanna be right....

But yeah, in "normal" everyday operation I shake a lot of hands...hell, I've eaten at potluck dinner (stay away from me with your congealed asstacular casseroles, ye filthy culinary heathen) and so forth...but I don't have to like knowing all you unwashed are about.

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You don't love me, you just love my piggy style

florida0214

As I rule i try not to piss all over my hands. i do wash my hands after i use the restroom and use the towel to open to door, btu i only do this becasue i shake about 100 hands everyday at work and its gross to imagine where those hands have been. I hope they would be as clean as mine.
Something that concerns me is you always now see the sign that syas emplyees msut wash thier hands prior to returning to work, but they need to make a sign that says we suggest EVERYBODY wash thier hands prior to leaving the restroom even if you get one or two more people to wash their hands you have done your job.

raeanna74

I've been to numerous swinger parties where bathrooms are frequently left open and it's not unusual for the guys to walk around in their underware. I've even seen my dad and brother in undies and wet spots showing immediately after using the bathroom. I've seen hubby, I've seen my neighbor (not current neighbor).

Is that enough?? You can't tell me you are certain you get ALL the pee off when you shake - if you get your hand wet and shake it to get the water off does it ALL come off? Not without waving it around for a minute or two at least, right?

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"Always learn the rules so that you can break them properly." Dalai Lama
My Karma just ran over your Dogma.

Mr Honest

Well as my user name contains the word 'Honest' so shall I be. Swinger parties? I know what they are not my thing.


I don't wash my hands or shake everytime or go into a stall to wipe myself.
dirty man?
I wash my hands before making or eating any food. I would never have oral sex or just sex from a lady without having a good wash first.

The reasons for not washing 100% everytime is part laziness, part there isn't always soap or anything anyway. Have you seen the state of some restrooms??!?!!
As for shaking 'it' about in public. oh pleasse. I dislike some bloke an inch away from me while I stand and pee as it is thankyou. I am not homophobic but don't like standing so close to a man with my dick out!

I have tasted pee a couple of times when going down on a g/friend but pah I loved em so I can forgive that!

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Human beings : who could ever claim to like them all?

pig

You know, I thought about this earlier, and here comes a potential contradiction in my ettiquette. To me, this is part of the age-old sacred contract of getting-it-on...the Acceptance of Pee clause where you more or less kind of forget about the secretions you're about to encounter, within normal bounds.

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You don't love me, you just love my piggy style

Gilda

May I point out that, in terms of why you need to wash your hands, the urine is irrelevant? Getting urine on your hands is absolutely harmless. It's even possible to save and drink your own urine in an emergency. Some people do it because they believe it's purifying and it strengthens the immune system. It doesn't, but it is mostly harmless.

Do you know what punji sticks are? Bamboo stakes sharpened and coated in feces and driven into the ground then covered with leaves or other ground cover, or in mud or tall grass to disguise them. A soldier steps on them, or is impaled. The wound itself isn't dangerous, but the infection is very dangerous, can lead to the loss of a limb, or in rare cases, death. The culpret is the coliform bacteria that are produced in the intestines and bowels. This is also why being "gut shot" or any other bowel perforation causes a slow, painful death; the leaking intestines infect the other vital organs with their coliform bacteria.

These same bacteria are hanging out on the surface and in the pores of your skin in your genital area. They can't be washed off; they're normal flora. So long as they stay there, we're all fine. However, whenever you touch yourself down there, you're picking some up. If you then touch something you're going to eat, or something someone else is going to eat, or another surface that someone else is going to touch, you're spreading your germs around.

You may have a little natural immunity to those produced in your own body (but don't count on it), especially if you've been exposing yourself constantly through poor hygiene habits, but the rest of us don't.

If that's not enough, keep in mind that frequent hand washing is the single most effective way to prevent the spread of disease. Even if you're not worried about your own health, say because you've got a very healthy immune system, it would be quite courteous to the rest of us to periodically wash your hands so as to not pass things along that you've picked up from surfaces or deposit things on surfaces others will touch.

Gilda

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I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Xazy

The worst part of using a public restroom, is when you have to use a handle to open the door, and there is no paper towel (just the air dryer). Normally I use the towel, to open the door, because of the other people who do not wash.

pig

Just when you think you're kind of getting to know someone, they break out the VietCong crap sticks on you, and everything's back to square 1

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You don't love me, you just love my piggy style

tecoyah

Highly productive comments
/end sarcasm

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

Suave

Fine by me. It's perfectly understandable.

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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

Mr Honest

more useful than yours. I thank you
since when is a question so out of order?

If someone said 'Oh Crazy guy wants to know something', I would take no offence. Brits are mostly more tolerant I reckon

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Human beings : who could ever claim to like them all?

tecoyah

Actually....my comments seem to have done exactly as I had hoped. It seems to have helped you revisit your comment, though the result of that visit was obviously not what I had expected. If the post had not been reported to me....Likely I would have left the borderline insult alone. I suppose a Moderate hint was ineffective, I will definately take a different approach next time.

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

Mr Honest

OK. I'm off on holiday in a couple of days. Let's see if getting married changes my point of view/ ways of expressing myself?

Maybe not but I sure won't have the time to come here as much. I reckon for the first couple of weeks I had better pay some attention to my perfect wife and not the internet!

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Human beings : who could ever claim to like them all?

Suave

And Gilda strikes the killing blow in favour of hand washing!

Mr Honest: You might want to curb your natural English sardonic tendancies to avoid any further run-ins with the law.

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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

Jinn

A couple things:

Hardly -- I backed away from the discussion because its very difficult to convince someone to be LESS clean than they are, especially if they're female (no penis-holding). That said, punji sticks were irrelevant to the discussion at hand..

Feces -- of course feces is harmful to you, I've never argued otherwise. It contains all the BAD bacteria that you're excreting, including e coli. It had nothing to do with poop, but the fact that men DO NOT need to wash their hands after urinating.

Certainly there ARE coliform bacteria, but they're almost entirely located around the anus. Yes, Cecil got this one wrong too. An argument from common sense that corrobrates this? Men and women alike put "dirty" penises in their mouth all the time, suck on them, lick them, and do all sorts of other dirty things.. why don't THEY die of the coliform bacteria? Sucking a penis or licking a vagina spread the virus (and purported illness) far quicker than your hands would, and yet we do not see this? I fail to see how the four fingers required to hold the penis in position during urination are becoming are such huge disease-spreaders if direct contact with your mouth does not contract a similar illness.

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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

pig

Jinn,

I've got an idea. How about some field research? Get a t-shirt, and have "I don't wash my hands after I pee" silkscreened on it. Then go around and shake peoples hands. Or, perhaps at a professional conference / setting, just tell people before you shake their hands..."by the way, I just peed...and I never wash my hands afterwards. On principle, you know?" See how they react.

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You don't love me, you just love my piggy style

Jinn

What would the point of that experiment be, exactly? It's already patently clear that people are far too scared of harmless "germs"...

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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

Menoman

I never wash my hands after pissing, I actually developed a habit, because of where I work.

When I piss, I don't touch my penis at all I can whip it out, take my piss and then flop it down in there without touching it once.

Where I work is extremely oily, and I don't like oily penis!

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aKula

I'm with JinnKai but I wash my hands unless I feel the taps are really dirty and there are no paper towels. Like said above I think it's dirtier touching the taps and door handles, though you can use paper towels in the bathroom you cannot avoid it when touching surfaces anywhere else, it is also not that bad, as long as you wash your hands before eating your not going to get anything from it.

The_wall

I also agree with Jin on this issue, however as somene who works in a kitchen I always wash my hands out of habbit, but when I wash my hands after pissing I'm really just doing it to guarantee a customer doesn't see that I didn't wash my hands. So don't worry restuarant goers, I always wash my hands even though I don't want to.

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"We do what we like and we like what we do!"~andrew Wk

Procrastinate now, don't put off to the last minute.

Nimetic

Haha. All this washing and re-contaminating. Amusing. Look it reminds me of a joke - wording is from memory and possibly incorrect....


A man goes to a fancy restaurant and notices that all the staff serving food have a piece of string hanging out of their trousers.

He makes a polite enquiry.

Sir - our hygiene practices are very strict. When we go to the toilet, we pull our penis out with the string so as not to touch it on our hands.

He asks how they put it back afterwards.

Sir that's simple. We use the tongs.

Nimetic

Along the lines of some other replies. It never ceases to amaze me the way most washrooms are designed. After turning on the (conventional style) tap with presumably dirty hands, one then is then expected to turn it off with the freshly washed hands.

But about the door... mostly I just push it open with my hips. Easy.

Nimetic

Hey. What is it about dicks. It seems that there is a greater paranoia about the cleanliness or otherwise of male genitalia than of womens (?)

Is this because of the initial post?

Being external and all - I reckon that my male privates are very easily washed. Mine probably gets a better daily washing (or more often since I shower after the gym) than women's bits. And after the toilet, well seriously now - only the end is unclean. Whatever the exact definition of that is. (I aggree, this is all trash science)

But yeah my point is. Women can be at least as dirty. And don't get me wrong, I'm not one to generalize - but you girls can smell down there. Plus your plumbing is rather more complicated what with occasional blood and all.

Nimetic

It is interesting though isn't it how much manners differ between cultures. ie Manners are not absolute, only relative to expectations in your surroundings.

For example - in India it would be considered unclean to use your left hand for serving food etc. I believe that this is their "toilet hand" by convention. My brother is a lefty and he got his behaviour corrected a few times when we were there (I was a kid though.. can't remember much).

[If there's anyone Indian here, please correct me if I am wrong.. I don't in any way mean to demean the culture, just to show that conventions differ]

As another example, different cultures use please/thank you in different ways, in different contexts/frequencies. You can say thank you too many times and then be considered impolite for not removing your shoes or by declining particular foods.

Nimetic

Actually, I don't think my penis sweats much. I say this in case it has interest value to any of you women.

Jinn

Buuurrrnnnnn... PENIS CLEANLINESS POWER *ACTIVATE*!!!

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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel