June 24, 2003
UPDATE: CUAL ES MAS ASQUEROSO?

“Which Is More Disgusting?”


Following up on an earlier post, “Cual es Mas Asqueroso?” -- or, “Which is More Disgusting?” -- we asked, well, which is more disgusting, at least among regular household items: the kitchen sponge or wall-to-wall carpeting?


By a margin of almost two-to-one, i.e., 64 percent to 36 percent, TRR readers established that wall-to-wall carpeting is the more disgusting of the two common household items from which I asked you to choose.


I couldn’t agree more. Is it any wonder I love my readers?


In the inimitable words of the inimitable Jane Finch of the Daily Rant, who didn’t actually cast a vote in this survey but with whom I have discussed this matter in the past, wall-to-wall carpeting is “an abomination.”


(By the way, I counted Jane’s vote in this poll under “wall-to-wall.” Why? Because I like her. Even though her blog doesn’t link to TRR. I did not, however, count the anticipated vote of reader L.M., which I knew would have been cast in the W2W column because, well, I’m just a fair kind of guy. Not that I don’t love L.M., I do. I “luv” her.)


Anyway, as reader B.M.O. put it:


Tough choice. I ripped up some wall-to-wall last fall and threw it on the back deck. It’s been there all winter, and it’s now spring. It was fairly disgusting on the floor, what with two puppies and three kids, but rolled up and in the elements, it’s in own ecosystem now, really, and I’m not sure that I’ll be able to remove it until it freezes over, or, at least a little frost kills off some “the life”.


We don’t have a kitchen sponge, but if you mean the one for the floor, kept under the sink, I’d have to think that has pretty much got to be it. Unless one considers an unrinsed dish cloth, meant for cleaning dishes, the one that sits draped over the kitchen faucet. That’s fairly disgusting. Especially if it is used occasionally to wipe spills on the floor.


My wife and I once moved into an apartment -- our first together -- that had wall to wall carpet in the kitchen. That was pretty bad. But I still think the one that might top the list is the little terry-cloth floormats that fit snugly around the base of the toilet, especially so if the toilet is in the basement.


Puh-leeze, people! Wall-to-wall carpeting is the most disgusting invention known to humankind. Enough with this crap, already! If it’s in your home, get rid of it! If you’re thinking about it, don’t! Wood floors and extremely well tended area rugs. Even linoleum, for crying out loud! That’s the answer you’re looking for.

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