Daryl’s Back Pages
From the perspective and pen of California Newspaper Publishers Association Gold Medal winning journalist and writer Daryl Fisher, join us as Daryl talks positively about family, friends and the interesting people and places that have shaped his life. He does so with a gentle hand and a quirky sense of humor, drawing on the simple, joy-filled experiences of everyday living. He is interested in personal snapshots, not grand panoramas, although he’s not shy about trying to pass along a few insights into the human condition whenever the opportunity presents itself. Fitting into your busy day, lighthearted views of life around 5 minutes each.
Daryl’s Back Pages
A New Study Shows Women Love Housework
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Join us for another episode of Daryl’s Back Pages, “A New Study Shows Women Love Housework”. Podcasts with thought-provoking insights about life in around 5 minutes.
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"Boy, Mary, this article is just full of information. For instance, did you know that you can polish chrome with mayonnaise, remove bubble gum with peanut butter, and clean piano keys with yogurt? And listen to this. Men have almost doubled the amount of housework they do. We're all the way up to ten whole hours a week now."
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A New Study Shows Women Love Housework
"Hey, Mary," I cried out to my wife the other evening, "have you by any chance read this article in today's newspaper about how women are really starting to enjoy doing housework again?"
"What did you say?" yelled back my wife, who was in the next room leisurely playing a game of computer solitaire even though the kitchen sink was overflowing with dirty dinner dishes"That's what this article says," I continued. "Yep, it says right here in black and white that a bunch of researchers have found that a majority of women now say it's very important to them that their homes be neat and tidy. And that's up by more than ten percent from 1975. Apparently, there's a life pattern for housekeeping. Cleanliness standards seem to rise for women in their 20's, dip in their 30's and 40's, and then swing back up again in their 50's. And with the baby-boomers are all turning 50 and houses everywhere are starting to get cleaner."
"What in the world are you talking about?"
"Boy, Mary, this article is just full of information. For instance, did you know that you can polish chrome with mayonnaise, remove bubble gum with peanut butter, and clean piano keys with yogurt? And listen to this. Men have almost doubled the amount of housework they do. We're all the way up to ten whole hours a week now."
"Ten hours a year is probably more like it," I thought I heard her say.
"It also says that more women are starting to buy real dishes instead of paper plates; and that they're dusting and polishing the furniture every week instead of just once a month; and that the sales of brooms, mops and vacuum cleaners have been going right through the roof. And oh, yeah, here's one you might be interested in. It says here that more and more women are finding it really difficult to sleep soundly at night if they haven't washed all the dinner dishes before they go to bed."
Suddenly, my wife was right in front of me. "You made that last one up, didn’t you?”
“Of course, not,” I lied.
“You know,” she said with fire in her eyes, "your arm isn't broken. Why don't YOU get up and put the dinner dishes in the dishwasher for a change. It wouldn't exactly kill you, you know."
"But I don't know how to work the dishwasher," I said with the most pitiful expression I could produce.
"It's not exactly nuclear science," she assured me.
"Oh, that's okay," I said, definitely not wanting to depart from my long-held policy of remaining totally ignorant of the workings of all the household appliances.
"And for your information," said my wife with emphasis, "I did read that stupid article you have in your hands. Would you like to know the part that I really liked?"
"Well, sure."
"The part where they quoted Erma Bombeck as saying `Housework can kill you if you do it right'!"
"Hey," chimed in my smiling 22-year-old daughter, who had been listening to the conversation with a smile, "you want to know what I think about housework?"
"No," said my wife and I in unison.
"I think housework is meaningless," she said anyway. "I mean, why should I make my bed if I'm just going to get back in it the next night? And I'm with Mom, why is it that women get stuck with keeping houses clean? The whole idea is absurd. It makes absolutely no sense, especially since men are the real slobs anyway. If some lazy man thinks I'm going to spend my whole life slaving away keeping his house clean, he has another thought coming!"
A few days later, I happened to mention to a work friend of mine that my wife, daughter and I had recently had a lengthy and rather heated discussion on the subject of housework. "What brought that ugly subject up?" she asked me with apparent interest.
"Oh, some silly newspaper article that I was reading."
"Well," she said with understanding, "women have been known to get a little touchy from time to time when men bring up the subject of housework."
"Boy, tell me about it.” I said, “Now why do you think that is?"
"Because we're the ones who always get stuck doing it."
"Oh," I said.
"Anyway, would you like to hear what I think about the subject of housework?" she asked.
"Sure," I said, having long held her way of looking at the world in very high esteem.
"I think housework is an awfully lot like sex," she said with a straight face. "Just when you think you're through with it for awhile, you end up having to do it all over again."
