Abstract

In the Driftway

The article talks about domestic chores and dishwashing. A young woman has just been awarded her Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago, her doctorate thesis being a study of the time-honored subject of dishwashing. People have not read the thesis nor had they any desire to do so. From accounts of it they learn that it contains, among other things, a series of tables on just how many motions and how many minutes are required to conduct a dish soiled from the dinner table to the pantry shelf in a pristine condition. Talking about domestic work, the notion that guests must never be permitted to suspect that there is a kitchen in the house is a highly erroneous one; household chores are never pleasanter than when done in somebody else's home.