Friday, March 20, 2020

Wash those hands! -- in the time of COVID-19

Good parents always instruct their children to wash their hands after using the bathroom or before handling food or eating.

Now we're all being told to wash our hands -- the surgeon's way --several times a day after or before all sorts of activities.  Twenty seconds, washing all over the hand, between fingers, and back and front.  One of the popular things these days is sharing bits of prose or poetry, or song verses or choruses, that come out to about twenty seconds, to time your handwashing.

One suggestion has been the opening voice-over to the 1960s television series "Star Trek," which has lived on and on well into the 21st Century:

Space -- the final frontier!
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise,
Its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds,
To seek out new life and new civilizations --
To boldy go where no man has gone before!

Others use a verse to the song "The Wall," by the group Pink Floyd:

We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.


Not that I was ever a fan of rock'n'roll.  I'm not.  So what I usually sing as a handwashing mantra is a parody of the Pink Floyd song that my daughter and I made up one hurricane season (we live in Florida):

We don't need no big fat windstorm,
We don't need no hurricane.
Storm clouds on the far horizon
Bringing on the wind and rain.
Hey, Cyclone!  Leave Florida alone!
All in all, you're just another wind in the fall.
All in all, you're just another wind in the fall.

For the liturgically-minded Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, and some others, singing The Doxology works:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise God all creatures here below.
Praise him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Amen.

There is also the "Seven-part Amen."  (Yes, it's just "Amen," chanted seven times to a particular tune.)

Other mantras used by people I've encountered have been taken from Frank Herbert's Dune novels, bits of doggerel by Monty Python (20th-21st century comedy troupe), and many other sources.  (I welcome suggestions from readers.)

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