Althouse: "A new bathmat made of moss is kept alive by the water that drips from your body as you dry."

February 3, 2009

"A new bathmat made of moss is kept alive by the water that drips from your body as you dry."

Nice... or somehow unsanitary?

51 comments:

Beth said...: My cat would pee on that. Any cat would pee on that mat.; 2/3/09, 4:32 PM
BJK said...: I'm lichen it!

/rimshot; 2/3/09, 4:32 PM
Beth said...: If I were a cat, I'd pee on that mat.; 2/3/09, 4:32 PM
Beth said...: BJK,

bada bing, bada boom.; 2/3/09, 4:33 PM
traditionalguy said...: That looks like mine in my college days. It was A Sears bath mat my mother gave me to take with me my freshman year, but by Graduation it did look like this new invention. I blamed it on my roommate, who also had a garden like that one in the refridgerator behind the beer.; 2/3/09, 4:35 PM
Bob said...: The New York Times featured an article on moss yards back last may. Much of my own yard is moss, and it's mostly maintenance-free.

Can't imagine using one as a bath mat, though. The stuff is too easily torn and broken.; 2/3/09, 4:36 PM
Wince said...: Just look out for the rolling stone!; 2/3/09, 4:37 PM
AllenS said...: Well, at least I found out what is growing on my bath mat.; 2/3/09, 4:41 PM
traditionalguy said...: One question? Is this organically, insecticide free and not from China? OK that's two questions. Third question is can you grow your own like a Chia Pet?; 2/3/09, 4:42 PM
Michael Haz said...: It would attract squirrels.; 2/3/09, 4:44 PM
Curtiss said...: Chia mat.; 2/3/09, 4:47 PM
chickelit said...: I've never seen albino moss. I'll bet it doesn't stay white very long.; 2/3/09, 4:47 PM
ricpic said...: Invade the mold, invite the mold.; 2/3/09, 4:49 PM
Ron said...: I'm sensing slime...; 2/3/09, 4:52 PM
Xmas said...: Can I recommend moss graffiti?

http://www.storiesfromspace.co.uk/data/html/mossgraffiti.html; 2/3/09, 4:54 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Invade the mold, invite the mold.

Actually the mold is a more "sucessfull" whatever by our own standards.

So maybe if we integrate... ahh.. fill in the blank.; 2/3/09, 4:55 PM
traditionalguy said...: Fourth question: Are those the professor's legs? I doubt it, since she is too busy to trim a chia mat every week. And then when class is out from mid May to early August she it would die of thirst while she Travels the world in search of Good Photos.; 2/3/09, 4:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Beth is getting very territorial in a Dr. Seuss sort of way.; 2/3/09, 4:56 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I'd like the whole floor done like that, or a square built into the floor.

I remember in the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," some rich guy had a patch of grass growing in his apartment. I read that book more than 30 years ago, and that's the main thing I remember in it.; 2/3/09, 4:56 PM
Ann Althouse said...: My legs and feet don't look at all like that!; 2/3/09, 4:57 PM
Jeremy said...: Althouse - I think that was Stranger In A Strange Land.; 2/3/09, 5:00 PM
traditionalguy said...: Don't talk about growing your own Grass, Professor. The other blogs are lurking to catch some more Family Blogger rule violations. Just blame it on us chilrun, we don't know nuthin about no rules.; 2/3/09, 5:02 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/3/09, 5:03 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Althouse - I think that was Stranger In A Strange Land."

Really? Maybe I'm picturing the sheep grazing on the grass. The rich guy had a real sheep in "Do Androids" is that it?; 2/3/09, 5:03 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: My legs and feet don't look at all like that!

They look more like this.

That is color baby.; 2/3/09, 5:04 PM
AllenS said...: Instead of a broom and mop to do the floors, you'd need a Weed Wacker.; 2/3/09, 5:05 PM
AllenS said...: If Michael Phelps came over, he'd want to smoke it.; 2/3/09, 5:07 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Leave it to feet man..; 2/3/09, 5:07 PM
chickelit said...: My legs and feet don't look at all like that!

Do you think those legs look chubby?; 2/3/09, 5:11 PM
Jeremy said...: Althouse,
You could be right, in which case, there's also a scene in Stranger where the alien Smith is taken to the reporters house who has a patch of grass in his living room. Smith doesn't grok walking on living things until he realizes that the grass wants to be walked on.

I didn't grok the book.; 2/3/09, 5:12 PM
TitusWouldLikeToRecruitU said...: I want it, must have it, love it.; 2/3/09, 5:18 PM
Rose said...: Hey, that's the stuff growing on the north side of my roof. The stuff I was just reading about how to kill. I have a plantation!

It is beautiful, though, and when I brush the mounds off the roof, the kids make fairy houses with it.

Would it survive as a mat in the house? I doubt it, though it might if you feed it with buttermilk. AND keep it wet, which leads to other problems, nice little houseplants called mold...; 2/3/09, 5:28 PM
Joe said...: With my local water, it would get stinky really fast. (Moss isn't exactly stink free to begin with.); 2/3/09, 5:28 PM
Palladian said...: All you have to do is find some moss, grind it up in a blender with some beer and sugar (see the "Moss Graffiti" link above for a recipe) and paint it anywhere that's moist. You could carpet a room if you wanted to.

Does anyone remember the horrible moss wall that someone did on the horrible "Trading Spaces"?; 2/3/09, 5:29 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Yeah, the Trading Spaces moss room. That was hilarious.; 2/3/09, 5:33 PM
Ron said...: What's next, the Chia Den?; 2/3/09, 5:43 PM
Ron said...: Thinkin' out loud...

Why don't we have an Obama Chia Pet?

You know..."Chia-nge you can believe in!"; 2/3/09, 5:45 PM
Palladian said...: "Yeah, the Trading Spaces moss room. That was hilarious."

Didn't the moss die in process or something? I'm trying to remember which designer did it.; 2/3/09, 6:00 PM
Godot said...: I have one of those IN my tub. Grew it myself... didn't cost a nickel.; 2/3/09, 6:09 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I want it, must have it, love it.

Yes Master; 2/3/09, 6:16 PM
David said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/3/09, 6:23 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Yeah, the Trading Spaces moss room. That was hilarious.

That was the episode that made me think, "I would never ever ever go on that show." She also did some shoddy thing with the floor.; 2/3/09, 6:37 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: A park ranger in Washington state told my mother that they feed the park's moss once a year with buttermilk.

I love moss. It's been spreading in three places in the yard, and I hope the spreading continues.; 2/3/09, 6:43 PM
Eli Blake said...: And if you can't afford the full price model, you can get the "Athlete's foot" model for half price.; 2/3/09, 6:46 PM
Synova said...: I don't think that a moss bathmat would be any more prone to bad sorts of mold than a rug.

Some day I'm going to have a pet-free house and a bathroom with a skylight. When that happens I want that bath mat.

I've always wanted a tropical jungle in the bathroom with orchids and stuff, but there is never enough light.; 2/3/09, 7:07 PM
Revenant said...: The rich guy had a real sheep in "Do Androids" is that it?

The main character (who was basically middle-class) HAD owned a real sheep, but it died before the story began and he replaced it with a fake robotic duplicate to avoid the social stigma of having let an animal die.

I don't remember the grass thing, but it sounds like something that would make sense for that book.; 2/3/09, 7:08 PM
Christy said...: Upon buying this house, I ripped out orange shag carpeting, then at least 30 years old. Daddy insisted I save some pieces of it for whatever reason and tossed them into an unfinished corner of the basement. With spring rains that year I discovered I needed to re-grade around the house and a few weeks later I discovered huge nasty fungi growing out of that pile of carpeting. Some of it 4 inches high and hard, not gentle to the feet. Granted you wouldn't be standing on that bath mat in your outdoor shoes that have picked up who knows what, but still...; 2/3/09, 8:37 PM
Jen Bradford said...: I'd like it sunk into the floor (preferably in another room), so the whole thing would be level. That egg container shape bugs.

I will always associate moss with playing doctor in the woods as a kid. We spent a long time making "beds" out of it.; 2/3/09, 9:05 PM
TMink said...: "I'd like the whole floor done like that, or a square built into the floor."

I think that was Hilda or Hildy, her name escapes me. But that room with the moss on the wall will never fade. The memory, the moss must have died almost immediately. Hildy was a cruel person.

But not as cruel as the guy designer who remade a honeymoon bedroom into a grey and black prison.

Trey; 2/3/09, 10:01 PM
Ann Althouse said...: But the moss wall wasn't alive, was it? It was just Spanish moss glued on, right? If the floor was really alive....; 2/4/09, 6:08 AM
Nichevo said...: Wouldn't you slip and crack your skull?; 2/7/09, 12:50 AM