{"id":6309,"date":"2005-05-18T23:11:14","date_gmt":"2005-05-18T23:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/18\/on-soap\/"},"modified":"2005-05-18T23:11:14","modified_gmt":"2005-05-18T23:11:14","slug":"on-soap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/18\/on-soap\/","title":{"rendered":"On Soap"},"content":{"rendered":"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>

I’m not thinking about Simple Object Access Protocols; cripes, the i-net
\ncoders have acronymized the whole language.  But that’s another subject. 
\nOr it isn’t.<\/p>\n

Either way, in the shower this morning my mind was on soap nubs. 
\nTidbits and ends. Thin-worn slices.  Too tiny for sudsing; too large for
\ndropping in the garbage with a clean conscience: a nuisance.  Having pulled a new bar from the
\ncabinet under the sink, I recalled that when we moved to New York last summer, we
\nwent from a three-bathroom place to a one-bathroom place, from three showers
\n(even though we only ever used two of them) to one shower.  Consequently,
\nthe number of bars of soap dropped in kind, halving from two to one.  One
\nbar of soap now to go with one shower.  <\/p>\n

With all washing activity conserved to a solitary bar, the rate of
\nconsumption of soap, however, has not dwindled.  In fact, it stands to
\nreason that Ph.–a teenager, physically active, and so on–actually uses more
\nsoap than he once did.   And while I won’t go into great detail about
\nmy own lathering habits, let’s just say I find the soap more often in need of
\nreplacement.  The new, engraved bars top the soon-washed-away slivers more
\nand more frequently.  We’re scrubbing through a whole lot of soap.<\/p>\n

Evidence (though an evidence of absence, counterfactual?) we’re keeping dirt
\nat bay; that much is good.  Yet I constantly find myself attempting the
\nsplice–the manual merger of the fading sliver and the brand new bar, one
\nunsoftened by water and washing, the other nearly exhausted from it.  The
\nconvergence usually fails on the first try, and I fumble.  One or the other
\npiece of soap falls, puck-ochets around the tub before settling at the drain.\n<\/p>\n

My grandmother used to (and still might) have a soap-compressing apparatus. 
\nIt was rather like a close-ended garlic press.  Into it: bits and ends of
\nsoap, all the stubs.  Crimp them together and you produce a fresh bar. 
\nNotch one for resourcefulness.  But me, I keep on fusing the soap pieces by
\nhand, every so often pressing them tight until they bond.  Sometimes the
\nbond breaks; I grab up the evasive bit from resting place near the drain and go
\nagain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>I’m not thinking about Simple Object Access Protocols; cripes, the i-net coders have acronymized the whole language.  But that’s another subject.  Or it isn’t. Either way, in the shower this morning my mind was on soap nubs.  Tidbits and ends. Thin-worn slices.  Too tiny for sudsing; too large for dropping in the garbage with a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unspecified"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Soap - Earth Wide Moth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/18\/on-soap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Soap - Earth Wide Moth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: 2 minsI’m not thinking about Simple Object Access Protocols; cripes, the i-net coders have acronymized the whole language.  But that’s another subject.  Or it isn’t. 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(D. was already up and about). 7:20 a.m.\u00a0 Prepare for shower.\u00a0 Discover plugged shower drain. 7:25 a.m. Commence vigorous plunging.\u00a0 Curse the drain-stopper cap allowing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Slouching Toward"","block_context":{"text":"Slouching Toward","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/slouching_toward\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7462,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/22\/givers\/","url_meta":{"origin":6309,"position":2},"title":"52 Givers","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"August 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For Rhetsy, a five2 list of givers whose giving has thinned. Zenmaster is all out of meditations to give. Anesthesiologist is all out of sedatives to give. Basketball referee is all out of whistle blows to give. Late-season bee is all out of pollinations to give. 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