Especially for Anne after reading this post. This funny-sad poem came to mind when I read the article Anne linked attributing the increase in asthma, allergies, and immune disorders to the santized environment that we in the West strive for. While I make it make it my ambition to keep a clean house, not a sterile one - and there is a difference - I tend to think these problems develop more because of eating dead food, that is, food that's had all the life pasteurized or irradiated out of it. Well, that and unnecessary vaccinations, but that's a whole nother subject, and one I'm not willing to discuss right now. ;-)

Strictly Germ-Proof
by Arthur Guiterman

The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gambolled up;
They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised;
It wasn't disinfected and it wasn't sterilised.

They said it was microbic and a hotbed of disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as banished hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.

In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And 'lected it a member of the Fumigated Band.

There's not a micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a hygienic cup--
The Bunny and The Baby and The Prophylactic Pup.