Folks,
This is Ray being random, again, so you may want to skip and delete.
I've noticed, lately, a new social mannerism in which people cough
into their elbows rather than their hands. It makes sense, but I had to
think about why.
Long ago, when I was growing up, I was taught to pull out a
handkerchief and cough into the handkerchief held in my hand. As time
went on, Kleeneces of various brands replaced handkerchiefs - but one
can't carry a Kleenex in one's back pocket indefinitely and hope to be
able to use it. Thus, we changed over to coughing into our hands
instead of our handkerchiefs. Eventually, everyone realized that this
is not sanitary so we were all instructed to wash our hands on a
frequent basis. During this time, clothes changed from being relatively
painful to wash to being painless, both from the change in materials and
the automated help. Someone suddenly realized they could reasonably
cough into their sleeve, not have to constantly wash their hands, and
just wash their clothes, which they would do, anyway. And now we have
the movement toward the sensible cough into the elbow.
This change in behaviour required multiple factors to take effect:
1. Handkerchiefs being available (before these, folks coughed and blew
their nose into their hands and or washbowl)
2. Kleeneces replace handkerchiefs for most uses except carrying around
for coughing into.
3. Clothing materials had to become durable to frequent washing.
4. Clothes washing had to become easier to do.
I love observing emergent behavior in the best ABM of all - life.
--
Ray Parks rcparks at sandia.gov
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