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Hi Debbie, > Ok...I'm back from work, still to ill to > shovelglove, what else is a > worthwhile activity for a excitement challenged girl > to do? > > Look through "terminated" everyday systems of > course! Wow, you really must have been fit for nothing! > So what's Schwerpunkt...Does this have to do with > dropping > things?...No wait that "plunkt". I don't have a > clue, but I'm sure > it's funny, and probably very German and > functionally efficient lol :) "Schwerpunkt" literally means "heavy point." It's German WWII military term that means concentrating all your forces on a single, narrow front to achieve overwhelming superiority and break through the enemy lines. I wanted to apply it to housecleaning, naturally. The idea is: certain parts of the house get much dirtier, faster than others (in our case: kitchen, bathroom, dining room). Instead of diluting your limited cleaning efforts over the whole house, focus on these. Not only will you notice the results of your efforts more, but (so the theory goes) you'll nip the funk in the bud before it migrates to other rooms. Using a manly military term for something for mundane "women's work" is supposed to whip up inspiration. It's not a terrible idea, as a general principle, just insufficiently specific. > > And Cartago Delenda Est? "Cartago delenda est" is kind of similar. It means (roughly) "Carthage must be utterly destroyed." The ancient roman statesman Cato the elder uttered this hard-ass phrase at the end of every speech he gave in the senate during the third (?) punic war, to remind his fellow senators of the awful but necessary business before them. Carthage (located in modern Tunisia) was basically Rome's only serious competition in the empire business until the barbarian implosion, and the wars between them were close calls, fiercely destructive, and "existential." The great Carthaginian general Hannibal had scared the pants off them when he brought an Elephant mounted army over the Alps and rampaged through Italy. When the Romans finally did win, they took Cato's advice literally: they burned Carthage to the ground, sold everybody they didn't kill outright into slavery, and plowed salt into the fields so they couldn't ever grow anything again -- the low tech equivalent of an atom bomb. So what activity do I use this awful image to inspire? Doing dishes. Except dishes are an even more fearsome enemy than Carthage-- because no matter how many times you do them, however "utterly," there will be more tomorrow. But just because it's hopeless doesn't mean you can't be a hard-ass about it. The smaller (qualitatively speaking), more hopeless, and repetitive the task, the more we are in need of inspiration, because it just won't come with any. So I don't think Cato the Elder is too much. Ajaxing the sink makes a great salt substitute. The big problem with this system? I got a dishwasher. Reinhard |
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