Why I Don't Put my Handbag on the Floor

You will never see a Brazilian woman put her handbag on the floor. They say its bad luck and your money will disappear. I never put my handbag on the floor for that reason and more so for the following reasons:

Have you ever noticed girls who set their handbags on public toilet floors, then go directly to their dining tables and set it on the table?
Happens a lot! It's not always the 'restaurant food' that causes stomach distress. Sometimes 'what you don't know will hurt you'!

Read on.............
I always get upset when guests came in the door and plopped their handbags down on the counter where I am cooking or setting up food. I have always said that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.

It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know what's inside our handbags, do you have any idea what's on the outside? Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the floor of the car. Most women won't be caught without their handbags, but did you ever stop to think about where your handbag goes during the day.

'I drive a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus a lot,' says one woman. 'On the floor of my car, and in toilets.'
'I put my handbag in grocery shopping carts and on the floor of the toilet,' says another woman 'and of course in my home which should be clean.'

Most women have told me that they didn't stop to think about what was on the bottom of their handbag. Most said at home they usually set their handbags on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared.
Most of the ladies I talked to told me they wouldn't be surprised if their handbags were at least a little bit dirty..

It turns out handbags are so surprisingly dirty, even a microbiologist who has tested them was shocked.

Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbags tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of bacteria. Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the handbags could make people very sick.

In one sampling, four out of five handbags tested positive for salmonella, and that's not the worst of it. 'There is faecal contamination on the handbags' says Amy. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than cloth handbags, and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended to have dirtier handbags than those without, with one exception.

The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. 'Some type of faeces, or possibly vomit' says Amy.

So the moral of this story is that your handbag won't kill you, but it does have the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat. Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don't put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.

Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair of shoes. 'If you think about putting a pair of shoes on your countertops, that's the same thing you're doing when you put your handbag on the countertops.'

Your handbag has gone where individuals before you have walked, sat, sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc! Do you really want to bring that home with you?

The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a handbag will help. Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather handbags.

Or do what I do, use a purse hook.

Food and Aggression..Is there a link?

I saw a video on Youtube the other day of two girls beating up a transgender male at a McDonald’s in Baltimore. I was shocked by what I saw. Young girls are becoming increasingly violent and aggressive. What shocked me the most is how nobody got involved to break up the attack. It was only after they beat the pulp out of this poor person that an elderly lady stepped in to stop it. remember, this was being filmed and the cinematographer was more interested in getting the best shot rather than helping the person who was in distress.
Bullying is rampant at schools and at the workplace. There is no distinction between being assertive and being aggressive. Bullying behavior is learned. My two sons have been bullied in the past and my one son even had a boy pick a fight with him and tried to turn it around to make it look like my son was the bully. This kid was simply jealous of my son’s popularity at school and tried to make himself out to be the victim. Total set up on his part.
Where is the moral compass in all of this? What gives people the right to attack others? Is their self esteem so low that they have to resort to being bullies themselves? Why did these two girls attack the person in the McDonalds? Why are people going ballistic in fast food restaurants? I think that maybe, just maybe, it is what is in our food. Preservatives and hormones in our food could be one of the causes of this aggression that has become so rampant lately. It is definitely causing obesity. Could that be the link?

Does The Shoe Fit?

Like any red blooded woman who has a pulse, I am a shoe fanatic. I love my shoes and am always on the look out for neat shoes. I am not a Carrie Bradshaw as I would never be able to afford the Choo's, Laboutin's or Manolo's that lined her closet.

I love shoes from Brazil. I really believe that Brazil is the final frontier of handcrafted shoes. Italy and France are two other countries that are known for their great shoes but even that is being slowly phased out as the 'artisans' are retiring and there is no younger generation being groomed to fill their shoes.(I know, bad pun)

Then of course, there is the biggest threat to the shoe industry, the counterfeit shoes coming out of China.$800 shoes being sold for $100 on Canal Street in NYC.

Instead of chasing down the bad guys, Laboutin is attacking YSL and Carmen Steffans, because they happened to put red on the sole of the shoe! PLEASE!! Here is an article that shows how ridiculous this is. Are they going to patent tan leather too?

This is such a beautiful video..Made me cry..Live to the fullest!!