SOAP!

Is it just me or does it look like the bowl is made of Soap too?

Given the kind of day that I had, there's nothing more relaxing than to just chew on a nice ivory bar of soap. What can I say? It's a habit I acquired when I lived for 3 months in the back of a locked delivery truck. Long story short it was held in an impound and they didn't realize I was in there. My doctor said that there were only minor medical issues from this, including a reduced ability to say curse words. All soap chewing aside.

Did you know that...

Gettin' clean Sumo-Style.

1. Soaps first appeared around 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon and were made out of ashes, cypress oil, and sesame seed oil. Interestingly enough it was not for washing people but clothes and animal hides. It wasn't til the Romans that people stopped putting clean clothes on dirty backs.



2. Today, soap is made from vegetable matter and/or animal fats combined in an alkaline solution which combines in a chemical reaction called "saponification". I won't lie, since soaps can be made from fat, I kinda want "Whale Soap"; that just sounds bitchin'.



3. Soap was a major form of governmental revenue during the 13th and 14th centuries and was heavily taxed. I guess there were just too many "dirty" deals going on at the time.


3. During the Napoleonic Wars, i.e. wars involving Napolean (short French dude with a big hat and an even bigger inferiority complex), soap was so important that tax inspectors actually locked up soap pans to stop illegal production at night. It was like the Prohibition but with less booze.


4. Soap is not often used during anime and comic-book conventions.


5. There are multiple ways to make soap including "Cold..." and "Hot Processes", both of which result in different types/looks/and feels of soaps. The type of process used depends on how much glycerine the maker wants to remain in the soap. Note: Soap Glycerine is not explosive, just cleanly.

Way, way too much time on their hands (but cool nonetheless)

6. "Nanoscopic" (i.e. really really tiny pieces) Metals including Titanium Powder and less commonly Nickel, Aluminum, and Silver are added to soaps for both coloration as well as anti-bacterial properties. So, theoretically, if you have way too much time (and soap) on your hands, you might be a very rich person.


7. There are soap hobbyists. I'm not kidding, there are people that go out and make soap for fun. I don't even have a punch-line for that.



8. Until the Industrial Revolution, soap was only ever made on a small scale until Thomas Barratt opened a factory in Isleworth in 1862.


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Hopefully, that is all you ever wanted to know about soap and then some. Before we get out, we wanted to take a minute to thank the Blogger "Fang" for his shout-out about the binary computer language yesterday. Something I had failed to mention was that the 1's and 0's are literally switches for "on" and "off"in the computer. Kudos to Fang for throwing that out there. I appreciate you lookin' out!