Dancing in the Loo wins, wins, wins at the Gloden Poo awards
Occasional guest barfblogger and handwashing advocate Michéle Samarya-Timm, now with the Somerset County Health Department in central New Jersey – represent – writes:
Usually poo is an undesirable thing. Regular readers barfblog.com know about the focus on poo avoidance – through proper farm-to-fork food handling, through sound regulatory practices, and through increased handwashing. We inform using po(o)p culture. We use humor. We use reality.
And it doesn’t get much more real than this -- The International Golden Poo Awards were held in London last week.
Imagine, a red-carpet paparazzi filled evening at a majestic theatre, to view a program full of short animated films about hygiene and poo – culminating in the presentation of a coveted golden statuette. How better to increase awareness of handwashing and heap praise on those who are helping to spread the clean hands message in unique, humorous and gross ways?
Golden Poo Award nominees included:
• For your convenience
• Symphony Number Two
• A Film about Poo
• Poo in Passing
• Are you spreading poo?
• Toilet Plant
And the winner: Dancing in the Loo (above).
The winning videos can be found at thegoldenpooawrds.org.
Several of my colleagues already commented that these videos were a little too focused on fecal matter. Perhaps. But as noted in the recent UK study – the perception of gross seems to increase handwashing amongst some audiences.
Alicia Silverstone will teach you how to poo
She was great in those Aerosmith videos, cute in Clueless, terrible in 1997’s Batman and Robin, and insufferable as a vegan spokesthingy.
And now she can teach you how to poop.
Alicia Silverstone, who has been a vegan for ten years, has a new book, The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight and Saving the Planet.
Some Alicia-isms:
"Remember, dairy was designed to make little baby calves turn into 400-pound cows, so that's what it does to you. …
"Most people aren't pooing. I know two girls in my life who are good friends, who were not pooing, but now they're pooing 'cause I helped them. I taught them how to poo."
A Canadian in New Zealand: Cartwheeling in sheep poo
This weekend during a mini-adventure an hour north I got to tick two things off my Things to do in New Zealand list: drive on the left side of the road and pet a lamb. While the former turned out to be easier than initially presumed (aside from roundabouts), it was the latter that had me giddy.
Hills covered in sheep were everywhere and I couldn’t resist the temptation to hop a fence (despite the electrical shock endured) and cartwheel the fields (right), scaring sheep and likely placing my hands in sheep poo. I didn’t wash them, though I really should have.
Sheep, like cows and goats, are ruminant mammals and therefore can carry E. coli O157:H7. If you cartwheel in [sheep] doo doo, wash your hands.
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Doo doo in the Soo
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Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is a very unique place. Lovingly called the Soo, home of the Bon Soo winter carnival and Greyhounds Ontario Hockey League team, many, including myself, call it home.
Today, while creeping on a fellow Saultite’s Facebook photos, I came across this picture (right). My workmate asked if cartwheeling was Canadian slang for something – I’m pretty sure it refers to the gymnastics move.
If you cartwheel in doo doo, wash your hands.
Cooking with Pooh
Last night while Doug was cooking dinner and we were feeding Sorenne some rice cereal and squash, I noticed we still had a tube of Pillsbury Cookie Dough in the refrigerator leftover from last week’s cookie experiment. We decided to make some cookies and free up more space in the fridge.
Doug reminded me, as I got ready for the extremely complicated process of slicing the dough to put on a cookie sheet, that I needed to treat the product as though it were contaminated. I said, “But this isn’t the recalled dough.” To which Doug responded, “Just because it wasn’t recalled doesn’t mean that it isn’t contaminated.” True that. So we were careful not to cross-contaminate. We put the tube on a cutting board. I used a pair of scissors to open it up and immediately put them in the dishwasher. I sliced up the dough, put it on the cookie sheet, washed my hands thoroughly, and Doug took care of the actual baking.
The cookies were not nearly as delicious as the ones Katie and I used to make during her 5 month stay in Manhattan, and I’m sure they contained some dairy, but we ate all of the cookies anyway.
This week Tom sent us a book advertisement from Amazon.com, “Cooking with Pooh: Yummy Yummy Cookie Cutter Treats.” If you’re potentially cooking with poo, be careful not to cross-contaminate and do not eat uncooked dough.
'I'm now known as the woman who ate the poo'
The Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney has reportedly paid compensation of somewhere between $60,000 and $200,000 to the family served poop-laden ice cream.
An agreed statement was released which said: "The owners and management acknowledge that Steven and Jessica Whyte or any of the people dining with them on the evening had no involvement in contaminating the ice-cream.
"The hotel acknowledges that the Whyte family (right, photo from Sydney Morning Herald) did not at any stage attempt to extort money from the hotel arising from the incident. The hotel regrets the hurt and distress suffered … as a result of statements that they acted improperly."
While the clarification and settlement ends a nightmare month for the family, Mrs Whyte has expressed fears she may forever be remembered. "Everywhere I go, I'm now known as the woman who ate the poo," she said. "It happens when I'm shopping, when I'm walking down the street and when I'm on the sideline watching my son at Little Athletics on a Saturday morning. I feel obliged to speak about it when people ask because everyone in the community has been so supportive."
If the ice cream's free, don't have the chocolate
That story about the Whytes who found some brown in their ice cream at the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney, Australia will lead to a formal complaint and subsequent investigation by the New South Wales Food Authority.
To tackle the poopy publicity, the hotel hosted a press conference yesterday, and offered free ice cream to patrons.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Monday morning that yesterday – they’re 14 hours ahead or something -- in the beer garden was just another sunny Sunday afternoon.
“Bevan Read, at lunch with his wife and three daughters, unknowingly took advantage of the free ice-cream offer. As the girls sat down to their bowls of vanilla ice-cream, a flash of horror passed across their mother's face as she heard the news. But after careful inspection, the girls were allowed to continue to eat.
Mr Read said, "We're pretty impressed they're putting on free ice-cream for the kids," before adding jokingly, "I'm just glad that I'm not having any."
Eddie and Lynne Sulkowicz had brought their granddaughters, Claudia and Alexia Karam, for a meal. They said they would probably still eat there but the girls' mother said they would not be having ice-cream. "At least not chocolate, anyway," Mr Sulkowicz added.
'You made my mum eat poo;' legal action planned against Australian pub
So this family goes to a pub to watch some footy. Let’s call them Mr. And Mrs. Whyte, because that’s their names.
The Whytes didn’t like the service, thought the food expensive, and complained.
Never complain about restaurant food and then get more food, especially if it’s free. Didn’t anyone watch that movie, Waiting, featuring Mr. Scarlett Johansson, Ryan Reynolds?
As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Whytes and their three sons were served complimentary gelato dessert by Coogee Bay Hotel staff three weeks ago after complaining about food prices, facilities and staff attitude.
Mrs Whyte said,
"There were four scoops including vanilla, chocolate and hazelnut. At the bottom, there appeared to be chocolate. Greedily, I went for it ahead of the kids. Thank heavens I did. The stench, the taste … I spat the food into a napkin and immediately I was sick.
"There was no doubting what it was. The whole family became hysterical. My poor son screamed at one of their staff: 'You made my mum eat poo."' The family complained to Waverley police.
The story says that the family took a sample of the gelato and had it tested at the National Measurement Institute. A report from the institute found: "The sample has an offensive odour and physical properties similar to human excreta."
In a letter to the family, hotel general manager Tony Williams said,
"If the incident did happen, as claimed, then it may well have been an act of industrial sabotage — with the hotel as a victim alongside your family."
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But yesterday Mr Williams said the case was now a legal issue that would be "vigorously defended".
"We are aware of the allegation and are treating it as extremely suspicious. Mr and Mrs Whyte have made a demand for up to $1 million from The Coogee Bay Hotel … We categorically stand behind the high quality of our food and the exemplary hygiene standards set in the new brassiere kitchen."
Should doctors' scrubs be as clean as their hands?
The New York Times reports that,
“Amid growing concerns about hospital infections and a rise in drug-resistant bacteria, the attire of doctors, nurses and other health care workers — worn both inside and outside the hospital — is getting more attention. While infection control experts have published extensive research on the benefits of hand washing and equipment sterilization in hospitals, little is known about the role that ties, white coats, long sleeves and soiled scrubs play in the spread of bacteria.
“The discussion was reignited this year when the British National Health Service imposed a “bare below the elbows” rule barring doctors from wearing ties and long sleeves, both of which are known to accumulate germs as doctors move from patient to patient.
“But while some data suggest that doctors’ garments are crawling with germs, there’s no evidence that clothing plays a role in the spread of hospital infections.”
Apparently there are some textiles being manufactured with antimicrobial components. I really have no opinion. But when it comes to Scrubs, Everything Comes Down to Poo.
Tellruide, Colorado, has a problem with poop.
Dog poop.A local biologist, Ramona Gaylord, told city council that the impact of waste produced by 100 dogs located within a 20-mile radius of a watershed draining to a small coastal bay would contribute enough bacteria and nutrients to temporarily close it to swimming and shell fishing after two to three days, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
A new form from the Marshal’s Office is due to come into circulation soon. It will enable passersby to document occasions on which they witness owners neglecting their doodie duties. By signing the form the complainant agrees to be called as a witness if a ticket is issued and the matter goes to trial.
So pick up your poop.
And if you find some old poop, send it to University of Oregon archeologist Dennis Jenkins. Jenkins found 14 feces, or coprolites, in the Paisley caves in south-central Oregon. He reported in Science on Friday that the oldest piece of crap in the collection was 14,300 years old.
Eske Willerslev, a Danish expert in ancient DNA and one of the authors of the paper, said genetic material found in the ancient poop suggests the earliest known North Americans came from Asia and Siberia, and were the ancestors of modern native peoples
As they sing on Scrubs, Check the Poo.
