Your thoughts on soap "curing". Is it imperative for a great shave?

That tikibarsoap link looks like lather porn to me.  

My mom used to unwrap all of the bars of ivory soap she bought and stack them in the cupboard to dry out before use.  She was born just before the depression and I think the point of this was to economize - the soap was harder and didn't go as fast.  Of course the fact that I left the bar soaking in the tub for the duration of my weekly bath likely thwarted her conservation efforts.  Payback for diluting our milk with powdered milk The lumps! yuk

Oh, Marko, did that powdered milk story ever bring back memories!  My dad was out of work for a bit.  Mom, to economize, used powdered milk in place of whole milk.  My sister and I hated drinking it and claimed we could tell the difference.  (Dad, being out of a job, had no relevance at our very young ages.)  Mom bought whole milk for us but didn't want to waste the powdered milk so she got the idea to make chocolate pudding with it when we kids weren't around.  Now, I loved (and still do) chocolate pudding.  However, when Mom gave me her sneaky mixture, I just looked at her with the most accusatory face I could muster and said, "You used powdered milk!"  My mother's eyes opened wide and asked how I knew.  Needless to say, that was the last time we had powdered milk in our home.  Fortunately, my dad got another job soon after that incident.  Jeepers, was I one rotten kid, or what.

Yeah Freddy , as kids I don't think many of us would have won awards for compassion. Its funny with the powdered milk, there was a period where the dairies put milk in plastic bags and you put the bag in a pitcher and snipped off the corner. Me and my brothers would be sure to toss the bag in the trash when it was empty but mom would fish them out and re-fill them with the powdered milk using a funnel so we started just cutting the bag in half with the scissors before tossing it out. Mom was really angry about that. She had limited funds and was trying to feed 5 kids but much like you, we just didn't get it. Powdered milk and margarine do not come into my house for any reason. To this day the thought of toast spread with margarine at breakfast makes me gag.

I still use powdered milk now as an emergency if I run out of the real stuff.
The trick is if you are running low and there are no cows wandering about your neighbourhood, take whatever milk is left and count it as part of the water needed to make the batch. If you can let it stand and mature and age and cure in the fridge overnight you may have a good vintage that is quite palatable although not as a straight drink.

I can not tell the difference between the tastes of butter and margarine.
I do know that margarine spreads easily while butter tears the toast or bread or fractures the matzoh.

I live by myself now so I need not be too particular or concerned about my non resident diners.
They are, probably for good reasons, very rare.

The only thing that I really care about is garlic. Its smells and tastes make me nauseous. That is also the reason I will never, ever take a Toronto taxi cab.
None is to be found in my house and all canned or packaged food labels are carefully scrutinized.
That combined with my diabetes forces me to prepare all my meals from scratch. ( I could not think of a more genteel word.) They are not that bad.

Mickey Oberman, I must tell you how much I enjoy the humor you wrap into your wisdom, or is it the wisdom you wrap into your humor?

Mickey Oberman , I'm not fond of Toronto cabs either but not necessarily because of garlic - I will never forget a harrowing cab ride on the 401 heading for the airport. The cab was a beater - the driver's side window wouldn't stay up and the wipers barely worked at all. He was hurtling down the road at excessive speed when one of those Toronto showers hit. You know the ones, freakin torrential rain, like the entire sky is a giant water faucet turned on full blast. He's using one hand to hold up his side window as best he can because the rain is pouring in and the wipers couldn't clear the windshield. He never slowed down. I was too scared to speak but I was praying for all I was worth. We made it and the driver acted like it was all in a day's work.

Regardless of the speed I probably would have jumped out of the cab.
I am not fond of speed on the ground. Especially when the driver is talking animatedly on his cell phone.
Water is ok. Air is even better. No stop lights to ignore on either one.

Just last year I opened the cab door while it was in motion.
The cabbie screamed at me. "What the ---- are you doing?"
I told him to shut up, put the cell phone away and concentrate on driving.
I was carrying my cane at the time.

He did. He got no tip which is a huge affront to a cabbbie.
It was very satisfying to me.

Freddy,

It is either laugh or cry.
Crying does no good.
Laughter is heap good medicine.
I do not claim much in the wisdom department.

Regardless of the speed I probably would have jumped out of the cab.
I am not fond of speed on the ground. Especially when the driver is talking animatedly on his cell phone.
Water is ok. Air is even better.  No stop lights to ignore on either one.

Just last year I opened the cab door while it was in motion.
The cabbie screamed at me. "What the ---- are you doing?"
I told him to shut up, put the cell phone away and concentrate on driving.
I was carrying my cane at the time.

He did. He got no tip which is a huge affront to a cabbbie.
It was very satisfying to me.

Shall I tell you about the cabbie I had while going to the airport at four in the morning?  He proceeded to take out a bowl, pour cereal and milk in it, pull out a spoon, and had his breakfast, all while driving through city streets and a freeway.  Lovely.

Not to try and one up you or anything Freddy, but my neighbor who used to drive me to school (also a high school student at the time) did the same thing while having a newspaper spread across the steering wheel reading it AND only having a tiny piece of clear glass at the bottom of the windshield to see out of as the rest of it was covered in frost. She was usually running late so we never had enough time to wait for it to clear. One morning, we actually did start to go off the road towards the ditch, harrowing to say the least!

Perhaps this would make a popular new thread which could later be turned into a horror movie.

"Close Shaves of Car Passengers"

Not to try and one up you or anything Freddy, but my neighbor who used to drive me to school (also a high school student at the time) did the same thing while having a newspaper spread across the steering wheel reading it AND only having a tiny piece of clear glass at the bottom of the windshield to see out of as the rest of it was covered in frost. She was usually running late so we never had enough time to wait for it to clear. One morning, we actually did start to go off the road towards the ditch, harrowing to say the least!

Perhaps this would make a popular new thread which could later be turned into a horror movie.

"Close Shaves of Car Passengers"

Jeff, I don't mind being topped, at all.  I'm just delighted that both of us are still here to tell our tales.

Wow, Mickey, if we could do that, we'd make a fortune.