Washing the Dishes
Since the dawn of man, from the moment that homo sapiens stood up and cooked his first meal, there has been the continual argument, rife with conflict and hatred, about who would do the dishes. "I cooked! I shouldn't have to clean up!" homo sapiens screamed at the apes bent over their barbeque drumsticks pulling the meat off the bone with their long canines.
The scene has played itself out hundreds of millions of times in every culture, language, religious belief, and time. In the seventies, John Jones convinced his congregation to drink arsenic mixed with cool-aid so as to let their bodies be free to move onto their next adventure. John Jones was killed by armed guards, not (as some accounts have been given) because he refused to drink the cool-aid, but because he refused to pick up the plastic cups littered amongst the parishioners
Doing the dishes is serious business!
In past generations, parents would have lots of kids to help with the animals and the farm. My parents decided to apply this principal to dish washing, and in their exuberance, they made five of us. My friends weren't spared their time in front of the sink either. "Kids were made to do dishes" was the mantra at my house.
At some point in the early eighties, the automatic home dishwasher became affordable enough that my younger brothers were spared the agony of staring into a deep well of dirty dishes, watching the water cool and bubbles dissipate, as the rebellious neighborhood kids played in the streets on all those warm summer evenings. And yet with my younger brothers' pardon, my anger and resentment of that "convenience appliance" grew into a blossoming tree of hatred. I have a similar relationship with the microwave, but that is for another time.
It's taken several years, and although the dishwasher and I are nowhere near close, we tolerate each other. Kind of like how the dog and I do. We acknowledge that we're both there to be fed and to have our heads rubbed occasionally, but we also know that we are competitors for those same precious commodities and the couch.
The latest incarnation of the "dishwasher" that I installed in our kitchen is a double drawer unit. Fisher Paykel originated the design, then licensed it to Kitchenaid. We once had a Fisher Paykel unit, and I have to admit, I liked it better. The dish drawer is a marvelous idea that has helped our relationship. Most single dishwashers are far too large in that they hold almost all of our dishes. Inevitably, we'd run out of bowls or spoons before the dishwasher was full enough to run a load (and I won't waste water), so I would end up washing dishes by hand to be able to eat. Silly. The split load helps manage this, and the unit is both energy and water miserly, which makes me feel better as well.
The "cleaning" ability seems to be rather effective, when you put dirty dishes in the thing. My crazy wife inherited the last generation's mindset that the dishes need to be rinsed BEFORE you put them in the dishwasher, rendering the appliance just a dish sanitizer. I learned not to argue years ago, so I do as I'm told (when she's looking).
It's been interesting to follow the changes, evolution, and implications of dishwashing soap. Dishwashing soap has a tremendous impact on our water treatment facilities with considerable environmental impacts. Manufacturers have been "encouraged" to modify their formulas to be more environmentally friendly. As shipping costs have increased, denser more concentrated formulas have been brewed. It really takes only a small amount of liquid to clean a load (and even less to sanitize one.) So if you're using the same amount of soap that you were five years ago, you're using too much. Save yourself some money and make that bottle last longer.
The silly thing about the dishwasher is that it hasn't eliminated the centuries old conflict about who's turn it is to do the dishes. It's just taken the sting out of having to do them. Really, how hard is it to stack the dishes in the dishwasher instead of leaving them in the sink? Hard enough to still cause an argument aparently.
