Scruffiness and Success
When I was a student, in what Ian would call Sepia Days, I had a very likeable friend who was doing a PhD but appeared to be dedicating his research grant to working out how to raise Scruffiness to an art form.
One day he showed me his system for washing clothes. Proudly he directed me to the wardrobe.
"These are the clean clothes," he said, showing me where they lay on the shelves.
There didn't seem to be very many of the clean clothes, I noticed.
Then he pulled out a black bin-liner from the bottom of the wardrobe.
"These are the clothes which are dirty. But not so dirty that I can't wear them again. And I probably will."
He produced another bin-liner.
"These are the clothes which are really dirty. I'll have to wash these. They're too dirty to wear again." He took out a sock and sniffed it. "Yes. Yes, they're definitely too dirty."
From the back of the wardrobe, he produced a third bin-liner.
"And these - - " he said with a dramatic flourish - "These are the ones which are too dirty even to wash. I would show you, but I don't think I should open this bin-liner. I'm going to throw them away. When I get round to it."
I'm not in touch with him these days, but I wonder if he's still as scruffy as ever, now he's so high up in Lloyds Insurance.
Probably not.
Shame.
One day he showed me his system for washing clothes. Proudly he directed me to the wardrobe.
"These are the clean clothes," he said, showing me where they lay on the shelves.
There didn't seem to be very many of the clean clothes, I noticed.
Then he pulled out a black bin-liner from the bottom of the wardrobe.
"These are the clothes which are dirty. But not so dirty that I can't wear them again. And I probably will."
He produced another bin-liner.
"These are the clothes which are really dirty. I'll have to wash these. They're too dirty to wear again." He took out a sock and sniffed it. "Yes. Yes, they're definitely too dirty."
From the back of the wardrobe, he produced a third bin-liner.
"And these - - " he said with a dramatic flourish - "These are the ones which are too dirty even to wash. I would show you, but I don't think I should open this bin-liner. I'm going to throw them away. When I get round to it."
I'm not in touch with him these days, but I wonder if he's still as scruffy as ever, now he's so high up in Lloyds Insurance.
Probably not.
Shame.
posted by Daphne at 5:43 pm
3 Comments:
Too dirty to wash? No such thing, surely? Too dirty to get properly clean, yes. I've got overalls like that. Most clothes from the High Street are so badly made they rarely survive more than a couple of washes anyway.
Yes the very thought of having a bag full of 'cannot be cleaned' clothes is giving me the shivvers.
Sounds like a challenge for all those products like Oxy Clean.
You MUST get in touch with this guy as now he's in my mind as 'Pigpen' from the Peanuts series and the idea of him sitting at a meeting table with a swirl of dust and dirt around him is just too funny.
Ian
I had a friend some years back who also had a similar system for washing clothes. He had a grading system of once worn, twice worn, thrice worn then wash...I don't think this system applied to socks and underpants though!
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