I'm too clean for the NY subways

This weekend one of my college friends came to the city for a little visit. She works for a well-known environmental organization, which I'll call Preengeace, and she has some excellent stories to tell about her job. Of all the people I talk to regularly, I think her job and organization are the most fascinating.

While we were riding the subway during her visit, she was approached by a possibly intoxicated man (it was about 3 p.m.), and questioned about a necklace she was wearing. Side story about the necklace-it was given to her as a gift, and is made of coral. She doesn't wear the necklace at home or work but figured she could wear it while visiting, since she knew we weren't about to lecture her, of all people, about sustainability of coral jewelry. I wouldn't have even known what it was made of if she hadn't told me, but I'm more into blood diamonds than coral.

At least it wasn't a necklace made from this poor whale's missing teeth.

Anyway, she admitted to the man that yes, her necklace was made of coral. Then he launched into an incoherent babble about the environment, something about how he used to be a sea man (at this point, his diatribe made me think of the South Park episode with the Sea People and it was hard to keep a straight face), and how "girls like you, with your clean clothes and your detergents, they go in the water....blah blah.....incoherent ramble....fish....another mention of detergent and clean clothes and girls." I expect that this is the only incident where someone on the NY subway will complain that I'm TOO clean.

This incident made me realize that I need to apologize to all of you for being female. I guess I'm slowly killing you all with my clean clothes and laundry detergent, since there are absolutely no environmentally friendly detergents on the market.