Cohousing-L Mailing List: "science" correction

[barbara keppel (71612.340]

"Kay Argyle" <argyle [at] mines.utah.edu> wrote on Wed, 12 Jan 2000 
13:55:25 -0700

>Subject: Re: Question about Meals...
>We had a debate over the safety of plastic vs. wooden cutting 
>boards, based on articles in Science News -- turns out wood has 
>natural antimicrobial properties, which shouldn't have come as 
>a surprise -- 

Much as I wish this were true, from what I read, subsequent, more
extensive, research showed the wood did not have antimicrobial 
properties as earlier believed, so I went back to plastic cutting
boards for meat. I use my big chopping block type surface for 
most other cutting. 

When I built my own kitchen, 20 years ago, reading "Management in
the Home" by ______ Gilbreth was very helpful to the planning 
process. (Mrs. Gilbreth was the mother in "Cheaper By The 
Dozen.") Her time and motion studies helped me think out ways to 
avoid some of them - like having drawers to one side rather than 
below the main cutting/chopping surface. Allows the chopper to 
sit on a stool, keeps people from pushing the chopper aside to 
raid the drawers, and allows for a hole in the block which opens 
into a composting receptacle. Hopefully, trading info on this 
list serves much of the same purpose as reading Ms. Gilbreth.

I couldn't agree more about designing the kitchen so cooking 
tasks can be sociable. For apartment use, I found a 24 x 30 
island on wheels with a chopping block top invited folks to work 
on meal prep together, and allowed me to move the surface to 
where it was needed. In the house where I built my own kitchen, a
wide counter between kitchen and dining room served as a social 
center for cooking, serving, kibitzing, etc. The first day it was
in service, my son remarked "Guess we'll never eat at the dining 
room table again. This is too much fun." 

BobBI Keppel