Jesse Sheidlower: Question: What ever happened to "wash behind your ears"? When I was young, this was a universal (if old-fashioned even then?) instruction to ensure physical, and moral, cleanliness. Now, like quicksand, it has fallen out of the discourse. Why?

Question: What ever happened to "wash behind your ears"? When I was young, this was a universal (if old-fashioned even then?) instruction to ensure physical, and moral, cleanliness. Now, like quicksand, it has fallen out of the discourse. Why?

Perhaps it was always about removing the residue from your most recent near-death experience with quicksand.

Maybe because, as suspected, bathing is different now, and a shower doesn’t necessitate a wash cloth.

I wonder if the move from baths to showers has made the idea of failing to wash behind your ears odd?

Wasn't it usually (in fiction anyway) a caution to boys? The ones rolling around playing sandlot baseball or milking cows and bathing once a week, who would need to be reminded of the dirt they couldn't see in a mirror.

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