Just Joan - Joan Huguenard

Note: Today’s column is a rerun of the just joan of September 27, 2007, with a few current updates.

Once more, today’s column offers a collection of assorted tips, suggestions and pieces of wisdom I’ve gathered for your pleasure and edification. Did you know you can catch a cold from putting your wet laundry in the dryer? As goofy as it sounds, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona has discovered that unless you use bleach or water heated to 160° or more, your clothes may be free of dirt but still full of germs. Dr. Charles Gerba suggests you wash your hands after handling the wet clothes lest you touch your mouth or rub your eyes and take in an infection. Once dried, the clothes should be safe, as the dryer’s higher heat kills bacteria.

Automatic dishwashers wonderfully clean dishes and kill bacteria and yet thousands of users deny these marvelous machines the opportunity to do the complete job they were designed to do.

I remember my very first dishwasher back in the 1950s. A Mother’s Day gift from my spouse just before the birth of our fifth child, the gift earned a place of honor in my very busy kitchen. Mounted on wheels, it had to be rolled up to the sink so the hoses could be connected there when we wanted to run the machine. We quickly learned that for really clean dishes, we had to nearly scour them before loading.

Nowadays, however, dishwashers are designed to actually scrub with powerful water jets and efficiently deal with normal food scraps, yet many people spend precious water and time rinsing or even scrubbing before loading. Read your user’s manual. I’ll bet it instructs you to scrape off large food chunks, toothpicks and bones and says not a word about rinsing before loading.

Also in the ’50s, those of us who watched ads on the new mass communication medium, black and white television, were told repeatedly that “wetness in the armpits” was a social taboo. Thus we quickly bought into the idea that the new antiperspirant/deodorants would make us socially acceptable again. After thirty-some years of use, however, I began to ask myself some questions. Such as: Why would I want to interfere with a completely normal bodily function day after day, year after year? Is it in my own best interests to completely stop my body from carrying out its natural method of releasing toxins? Is it possible the widespread use of antiperspirants has contributed to the vast increase of breast cancer?

I don’t have the answers to the questions. My personal response years ago, however, was to switch back to deodorants without antiperspirant ingredients.

Looking for a way to compel yourself to save money? Here’s a clever suggestion that came across my desk: Never spend a one-dollar bill. Spend your fives and tens and any loose change, but at end of day, tuck the dollar bills into a dresser drawer to accumulate. Then periodically invest the collection into a retirement fund or savings account or someplace where the saved dollars will generate earnings for you.

Want to help feed hungry children? Margaret Trost, frequent welcome guest in Sonoma, continues amazing work with Haitian children through your donations to her What If? Foundation. Learn more at whatiffoundation.org. With the post-earthquake conditions in Haiti barely improved, your gifts are ever more needed and appreciated.

In 2007, we wrote of Margaret’s brother Paul, a Sonoma artist who covered the back wall of the church with his 20-foot iconographic painting of the resurrected Christ. The project was completely beyond the experience and training of the artist, yet he had responded to the pastor’s impassioned plea and completed the beautiful painting with only three days for completion.

Here’s a tip from our own Police Chief Bret Sackett. I had carelessly left my cell phone on a table while attending a seminar. Management, upon finding the lonely little communication tool, chose to redial the last number I had called. I was unaware of this until I had my phone in hand again and returned a missed call from my son in Orlando, Florida. He’d received a call from management and was greatly relieved to hear from me and learn it was not I who had been missing, but just my phone. That’s when Brett Sackett happened to come on the scene.
“It might be a good idea,” Chief Sackett suggested, “to punch ICE into your cell phone with the phone number of someone close to you.” This ICE, he explained, has nothing to do with immigration, but rather refers to In Case of Emergency. Law enforcement personnel throughout the country are being trained to look for ICE in the directory of a cell phone they encounter on a person stumbling around in confusion, at the scene of an accident or crime, or even in a case like mine where the poor little instrument was inadvertently abandoned.

How many people in your neighborhood have a pair or more of tennis shoes, running shoes or basketball shoes they don’t wear anymore because the shoes no longer look like new but are still pretty wearable? What if you were to gather up a boxful to be shipped to athletes in distant places like Haiti, Africa and Latin America? Information from oneworldrunning.com.

As a matter of fact, here’s a 2011 addition: I myself plan to head for Namibia in October to work with Mary Beth Gallagher in her school for Orphaned children. You may remember Mary Beth from September 29 and October 6, 2010 just joan columns.

As an incomparable soccer coach working with children who have nothing, Mary Beth gets amazing response from these beautiful children by rewarding good behavior and good performance with gifts of soccer jerseys, shoes, shorts, etc. formerly used by U.S. children. I’ll happily accept any of your used equipment for this cause and/or monetary contributions for even more supplies to improve the lives of these deserving youngsters.

Want to see a face light up? Next time you encounter a cleaning person in any public restroom, say something like this as you proffer legal tender ($5? $10? $20?), “I don’t know how much you are paid for doing such a wonderful job. Whatever it is, I’m sure it isn’t enough, so here’s a little bonus.”