Really Random

  Was quickly doing some dishes this morning; I'd cooked for the theatre Christmas potluck yesterday, and had a mixing bowl and a casserole and some serving stuff...  And was musing about my dish washing liquid.
 Odd, I'd grown up, as much as I can recall, with Sunlight in our kitchen. And probably carried that thought forward through much of my life. It's just what I bought. It worked, I liked it.
 Somewhere during my married life, either paying attention to price, or because there actually were more options, I'd switched to the No Name version, and in Wareham, had been using the Our Compliments one for years and years.
 Then I'd discovered that the PC No Name one had been reformulated, and its scent, while still citrus, had taken on a subtle grapefruit note, which I found very pleasant.

[I can only bear a citrus scent in my dish soap. Maybe it's because I grew up with that, or maybe it's just because I'm a bit twitchy about perfumes. But definitely my brain will accept a lemony smell in connections with clean dishes, where none of the other scent (or descriptions of scents) seem acceptable.]

 Sadly, they reformulated again, and now I was finding it almost impossible to get the dishes rinsed adequately. Same with the Our Compliments version. The dishes still felt soapy and perfumey. I found I was rinsing things out of the cupboard before using, and suspiciously sniffing glassware. I was turning into a crazy old lady. [Editor's note. Crazier.]

 For some reason, one day I  tried using Palmolive. Now I have spent my life making fun of Palmolive. Not quite sure why, but definitely the old ads. Where Madge, the manicurist, would tell you "you're soaking in it!" Madge became a character in my life, for all situations. She became 'the other person' you could blame for things. (Well, Madge, and Beatrice the invisible seamstress.)

 But I'm still currently using it, and finding it doesn't overpower me with scent, and it does seem to rinse off.

[I have tried the 'unscented' products, and found that to me they smelled 'chemical-y'. So much so, I couldn't breathe while doing dishes. I sometimes buy unscented laundry soap for the theatre laundry, but at least you can walk away from the washing machine...]

 Incidently, I made the Champignons from Menagier for the potluck. That's a 14th century mushroom dish where the 'shrooms are tossed with olive oil and poudre fort, and cooked with brie and parmesan. I'd made a point of collecting a casserole dish and my spice powder from Wareham on my most recent packing trip. Pretty much a huge casserole's worth went away, except for a small bit at the bottom that I will repurpose into a pasta dish for supper tonight!