What Gets Me:
Is that so many people have become so ignorant of communal hygiene. Purell and antibacterial wipes may have their place, but they're no match for some of today's nasty Neanderthals.
Very few people today are conscious of the need to cover their noses and mouths when sneezing; they blow mucus and sputum all over Hell's half acre. What gets me about it is that Kleenex, once something of a luxury, is dirt-cheap and everywhere today; there is no excuse other than sheer nastiness to be coughing and sneezing open-mouthed. I remember something that happened in a company I worked for in the early '90s, one of our staff had a bad habit of uncovered sneezes, which annoyed a lot of people, but most of us said nothing, to keep the peace. Well, the company's Vice-President didn't have those worries, and one day, Corliss let loose with a mega-blast in a meeting while sitting right next to Walt. He reached over to a credenza, where there was a box of Kleenex, and plopped it down in front of Corliss, saying - with the impact of splitting plutonium - "If you do that again, I. Will. Fire. You." Needless to say, she did not do it again.
The other one that gets me is people who cannot understand that anything communal on a buffet is to be dipped into once per dippable item, meaning dippable item that has not been into your mouth before. When I cooked professionally, I finally gave up on dippables, because I could not stand to see partly-eaten chips going back into dip a second time, or the same toothpick used for five, eight, twelve shrimp. The first person who ever did that should have been forcibly ejected from the party. On their ear.
And then there are those who do not understand the simple butter knife. Now this one is getting a bit more understandable, because flatware manufacturers are dropping butter knives from their offerings. But when faced with one, there is a correct way to use one, and it is based in hygiene:
- The butter knife on your bread-and-butter plate stays on your bread-and-butter plate; it is not for helping yourself to the butter. There is a separate knife called a "master butter knife," with a blade shape different from individual butter knives, for that.
- The master butter knife is used to take a portion of butter from the butter dish; the portion is then laid on the rim of the bread-and-butter plate.
- The butter on the bread-and-butter plate is used thusly: you tear off a small piece of bread, enough for one bite, and you butter that. You then eat it, without laying it back on the bread-and-butter plate.
Now, if you'll notice, this procedure leaves each person's bread-and-butter plate uncontaminated by anything that has been in anyone's mouth. It also leaves the butter in the butter dish similarly uncontaminated. Everyone gets all the bread and butter they want, and everyone goes home healthy.
Simple and sensible to clean people, but as Toggles once observed here, you can't fix pig.
