# General Discussion > Opinions >  information about a custom

## alexriversan

perfume bottles sometimes have the labelling "eau de toilette" on them.
eau is french for water.

now, the purpose is to clean hands and face after the bathroom was visited, especially within office work/writing something etc.

since i use eau de toilette for this purpose, i feel much better and can continiue to work instantly.

the attachment is not advertising but giving a product example. probably more people can take over this custom. it is only a little action, but makes a great effect.

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## RockLee

I always thought people use soap for washing the hands.Eau de toilette is to get that funky sleep/sweat/stinkscent off you by putting some e.d.t. on you :)

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## bossel

Maybe he wants to go back to renaissance when the nobility refused such dangerous practices as cleaning yourself & instead put on tons of perfume to mask the resulting odors.  :Atchoo:

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## lexico

1) This thread's head post clearly shows the originator is not incapable of clear, everyday language.

2) Wished that the use of visuals were more oft used than is now; not a new concept, but an indirect comment on the inadvertent danger/ineffectiveness of symbolic distancing. It is interesting that intentional acts of obscuring this symbolic communication called language can have the effect of shock (not always negative; though can be the cause of confusion or feelings of alienation and thus some additional red dots in the rep books), it can also have the effect of refreshing our reationship with reality. Guess why so many modern forms of art use the technique of novel estrangement for God knows what effect. 

3) I heard that the French in the middle ages were afraid of washing themselves for fear of contracting a disease, as Spok points out. Bathing oneself in the cold river was unimaginable for the superstitious belief that it might lead to pneumonia, tuberculosis, and eventually, death. In ancient Chinese literature, falling into the waters meant instant death. The art of swimming that can be learned by everyone came rather late in human history. Perhaps the crawl of the Australian aboriginees, copied by Captain Cook's sailors, would serve as an interesting event in the history of man's fear, avoidance, and eventual endearment with the element of water. 

4) Our emotionally neutral and scientific notion of water is a modern phenomeon, as are the Romanticists' notions of individuality, freedom, and love. How many things that we take for granted as constants are truly independent of time, history, and culture ?

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## Index

I've often wondered about Alexriversan's use of language, and have concluded that he has come back from the future to teach us all something about how English will be used one day. HAIL ALEXRIVERSAN  :Nihonjin:  :27: :64:

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## alexriversan

cool, i got fans.

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first index, he indeed discovered my origin.

it is nice how people like you play with rockets, or just like to push THE BIG RED BUTTON? computer games like from NINTY are made for you, index.

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lexico: your reply is at a high intellectual level, like most of the times. probably i can understand it fully if i read it a second time.

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bossel and his NICE spock avatar: i am going to explain the custom more clear.

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1. imagine you write something, like a construction draft.
2. then you go to the bathroom, and perform the big buisiness.
3. this includes the application of tissue paper especially manufactured for this purpose afterwards.
4. now you go back to your work, take the pencil, or whatever (painting), and you will draw HOW YOU WIPED "WHERE YOU SIT ON". cheers.
5. this is the same thing as the belief walking under ladders, black cat crossing the street, giving 4 yen coins and so on would cast BAD LUCK.

6. now if i apply eau de toilette to my washed hands, it allows me to continiue with my work instantly.

7. if these sentences are to complicated, then you should not write/paint/construct something, rather do some physical work.
8. if you read everything again and again you can get the point.
9. and it can help even people who are challenged, to buy perfume, have clean, modern clothing and so on. these people can be considered as consuments then, instead of pointing out they are challenged. if they participate in consume, they allow others to talk nice about them.
10. even chimpanzee's should have nike shoes. probably they will not get the point how to wear socks. but sure they will love nikies.

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## Index

I'd like to press the big WHITE button alexriversan, and the big GREEN one. Time for games I have a lot of, but not computer type. 

Thanks for post inspiration of language applicability.

By the way, why the interest in Japanese tomato farms?

SHIRO MIDORI TOMATO FARM

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## alexriversan

index, if i write these answers:

i like to open a rathair farm, for the purpose of cushion filling manufacture-

you would call me insane, challenged and in the need of therapy?

as well as silk spiders, to sell them to people with MOTH problems.

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## Index

To answer your question re. attachments, white button peace (dove), green button money (dollar bill). Tomato farm reference is in your signature, in Japanese.

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## alexriversan

okay, i am looking for a JAPANESE tomato farm, where i can make up a decorative cemetery, cultivate rats for cushion filling manufacture and silk spiders for people with moth problems.

now i have increased the size and can feel important  :Smiling:   :Blush:

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## lexico

eau de Cologne ? or is it Koln (o umlaut) ? or is it Colonia ?  :Doubt:   :Biggrin: 
Is it French or German, or is it just Franks under the Romans ? :rolleyes:

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## alexriversan

aaaargh colonia, where you have read this?
perfume which smells like colony.....

it stands for the german city KOELN, and is sold under the label 4711.
it can (probably) also mean eau de toilette with a similar formula.

originally eau de toilette is not the same as perfume, though most perfumes are sold as "eau de toilette" nowadays.

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## Miss_apollo7

Well into the end of the 19th century, it was normal for the wealthy and the Bourgeousie to just put perfume on instead of bathing, which was especially common among the upper class in France. 
In that way, old sweat and stinky body odour was not hidden and not rid off by cleaning.....yuck!

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## bossel

> 1. imagine you write something, like a construction draft.
> 2. then you go to the bathroom, and perform the big buisiness.
> 3. this includes the application of tissue paper especially manufactured for this purpose afterwards.
> 4. now you go back to your work, take the pencil, or whatever (painting), and you will draw HOW YOU WIPED "WHERE YOU SIT ON". cheers.
> 5. this is the same thing as the belief walking under ladders, black cat crossing the street, giving 4 yen coins and so on would cast BAD LUCK.
> 
> 6. now if i apply eau de toilette to my washed hands, it allows me to continiue with my work instantly.


Well, yeah, these sentences & the underlying mind currents are slightly too complicated for my simple mind. Maybe you should try to use simple language which non-native speakers can understand as well?

According to M-W eau de toilette is...
_: a perfumed liquid containing a lower percentage of fragrant oils than does ordinary perfume -- called also toilet water_

Which doesn't look like something that is necessary to "continiue with my work instantly[sic]." Washing your hands with soap or a similar cleansing agent should suffice.

But then again, maybe you refuse to use soap et al., only use pure water to wash your hands? Which would make the application of eau de toilette understandable, though not really more hygienic.

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## alexriversan

cool, do i see little flames, bossel?

however, i have made up the thread.

1. i draw.
2. i goto toilet.
3. big buisiness.
4. tissue application.
5. then i continiue drawing.
6. now, i draw what?
7. a piece of sh..?
8. eau de toilette really helps.
9. if not, i also have a spraycan around (deodorant)
10. useful for ticks and things like that.

far too complicated to read?  :Doubt:  

and: do you make drawings/do you make up circuits?  :Doubt:  
sometimes i wipe my allworthy and then i draw on paper...
no, i never did that actually.  :Poh:

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## bossel

> cool, do i see little flames, bossel?


Don't know what you see. Maybe you're hallucinating.




> 1. i draw.
> 2. i goto toilet.
> 3. big buisiness.
> 4. tissue application.
> 5. then i continiue drawing.
> 6. now, i draw what?
> 7. a piece of sh..?
> 8. eau de toilette really helps.
> 9. if not, i also have a spraycan around (deodorant)
> 10. useful for ticks and things like that.


I see, no soap involved. Neither in wiping your "allworthy", nor in washing your hands. Interesting habit, though not very hygienic. Very much reminding of renaissance habits mentioned above.




> far too complicated to read?


Not really. It's pretty clear now why you need eau de toilette.  :Atchoo:  :150:

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## alexriversan

bossel, i have not explicitly stated:

if the eau de toilette is the exclusive method of hand cleaning,

or an additional procedure.

true, i am even that obscure not to walk at the backside of people.

you may compare for yourself to man giving woman a handclap on their all-whorty.

maybe such scenes (on tv) have produced this behaviour pattern.

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