ArcaMax

We went three weeks and a day without a working dishwasher. And then when we finally got a repairman in, he fixed it in five minutes. When I asked him what the problem was, first he blamed the soap. ... Then he blamed me.

"The dishwasher sensed an excess of soap in the bottom of the unit," said Larry the dishwasher repairman.

I stared at the dishwasher accusingly.

"How could there be an excess of soap?" I finally said. "I use pods. They're premeasured."

"Well, let me ask you a question," he said. "Do you rinse or scrape?"

"Rinse or scrape what?"

"Your plates."

I thought this might be a trick question. I had always been taught to rinse my plates before I loaded them into the dishwasher. My mother rinsed, and my father rinsed, and both my brothers rinsed as far as I knew because I never actually studied their dishwashing techniques. We all thought rinsing was the best way to ensure that the dishwasher was able to do its job.

"I rinse," I said definitively.

"You should be scraping," he said.

"Augh, I knew I'd get that wrong!"

That night I had to tell my husband the error of our dishwasher ways. Like me, he was a devout rinser who came from a long line of rinsers. As long as there had been automatic dishwashers in his family, they had all rinsed, and they passed the tradition on like a beloved recipe for brisket. I knew he wasn't going to be happy to be told that he should be scraping instead.

"Larry said the soap needs something to grab onto," I explained. "That's why you should scrape."

"Who changed the rules?" he said. "The dishwasher people or the soap people?"

"Apparently, the dishwasher repair people," I replied.

He shook his head and got up with his plate to clear the table. Just then I looked down and noticed one of the dog's toys right in his path.

"Watch out!" I yelled.

But it was too late, and as he stepped away from the table, he tripped on the dog toy.

I watched as he bobbled his plate and caught it, but not before food had flown off his plate and scattered all over the floor. We both stared at the mess on the floor.

"What should I do?" he finally said.

"Clean it up," I replied.

"I know that," he said. "But should I rinse or scrape?"

========

Tracy Beckerman is the author of the Amazon Bestseller, "Barking at the Moon: A Story of Life, Love, and Kibble," available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble online! You can visit her at www.tracybeckerman.com.

----

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate Inc.