All I Know Is I’m Clean As A Whistle, Baby
By Mitch Berg
Ad Age notes that antimicrobials and hand sanitizers are doing a land office business:
Consumers stormed to the web to learn how to cope with the flu and hit drugstores looking for hand sanitizers and remedies; health groups turned to Twitter to calm fears. The Mexican Tourist Board looked for ways to protect the country’s third-largest industry, while the U.S. pork producers, fearing a sales falloff, endeavored to get the word “swine” out of headlines.
Friends who work for local companies in the sanitation and medical products fields report that sales are brisk. A source at a local company that produces hand sanitizers for clinics reports that business at the company store – usually very slow, with the odd employee strolling in for a pen or t-shirt – involved four and five-deep lines at the cash register last week, with the store using a full-time order bagger for the first time in anyone’s memory, as empoyees stocked up on alcohol gel and antibacterial hand soap.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
The current flu really is zoonotic; there are as many swine with flu in Canada, who caught it from a human, as there are sick people in the US. All of those appear to be recovering, with no fatalities.
My ony exposure to a large swine agricultural operation was doing castrations. The facilities were much cleaner than what most people imagine, and we were scrupulously clean especially with our hands. Unlike some animals, swine castrations are done without anesthetic, so you have to be quick and accurate with the scalpel, with hand washing both before and after. The operation up in Canada needs to provide their staff with more hand sanitizer.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
swine castrations are done without anesthetic,
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH OHMYGOD AAGH!
I mean AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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I hereby ban this topic!
May 4th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Sure, Mr. macho country boy from North Dakota, lover of bacon. Get a grip. You get queasy about where that bacon comes from? I’m the one who started out as a city kid. Well, suburban anyway. Sheesh!
Most animals destined for eating are neutered to avoid the testosterone flavor in the meat (adrostenone, skatole). Cows, sheep, poultry of all kinds, all done on location, all without anes. The anes would pose more dangers in many cases than the surgery.
Contrary to what is going through your imagination (waaaaay too much empathy here! seriously!), there are techniques which dramatically minimize any pain. Pain drastically reduces desired weight gain, and there are methods of measuring involuntary response to be sure that pain is not significant. They usually object more to the mandatory antibiotic injection afterwards than they do to the surgery. You have to be careful when using an elastrator tho – you can put out an eye if one of those slips…
May 4th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Nah, DG, I grew up in cattle country, and I know all about where bacon, beef and such come from.
But if you think ANY male can disconnect the notion of unanaesthatized castation from AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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May 4th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Ahahahaa! I mean AAAAAAGH!
May 4th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Well, then you understood my comment abouta slip with an elastrator, a more gradual method.
To be strictly accurate, I have performed or assisted in castrations of a variety of species from very small to the largest farm critters, both with and without anesthesia. (Personal ‘best’, canine castration in 57 seconds flat, not counting administering anesthesia). Sorry to cause you any distress, even if it was only in your imagination, old friend. Neither spays, nor for that matter AIs or C-sections trouble me with that kind of empathy; must be a guy thing. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, ‘spay’ is anglicized from the french ‘epee’, or sword. You can figure out why.
This is probably as appropriate an occasion as any to reveal what Mitch, and Penigma, had been keeping confidential at my request. That I am female, not male, as some of you had assumed. Yes, Dog Gone is, in the vernacular of canine gender, a bitch.
So anyone who feels the need, let’s get the ‘castrating bitch’ comments out of the way now. But no smart remarks about lacking balls; I’ve had plenty over the years, all shapes and sizes. It’s not like I have them on a shelf in jars or anything like that; most were fed to barn cats and farm dogs.
Oh dear, I suppose sharing that didn’t make things any better, did it?
On the other hand, I wonder who, as Mitch so eloquently put it, is going to yank my chain next…considering my notions of fun.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
“That I am female, not male,”
Well, that explains the droning on and on……
May 4th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Yes, I’m afraid I’m only quick with wit and with scalpel.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
{rolls on floor, wracked with sympathy pangs. Yes, indeed, it’s a guy thing}
May 4th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Thanks for the laugh Mitch. So, I’m trying to decide, knowing you, if you would be amused by me sharing ag-biz semen collection techniques, or if they’d put you back on the floor with sympathy pangs.
Better not.
Hey MoN, you guys have an overabundance of testosterone flowing around here. You could all use more female participation to balance that out! So – a little less mysogyny please
May 4th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
“So – a little less mysogyny please ”
Did you say something honey?
May 4th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
you guys have an overabundance of testosterone flowing around here.
DAMN right! FAWK Yeah!
May 4th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
SitD, as locker room….