Words are slippery ... read more about labels Part 2

"My feeling is that labels are for canned food... I am what I am - and I know what I am. "

Michael Stipe.

( I found this quote, and then learned who Michael Stipe is.  I have lost a generation of music to living life, but am thankful to be open to learning any time, any day, in many ways.)


I remember years ago when first I stepped at the edge of safety that was the beginning of the end of my career as a corporate writer.  Thirteen years in the corporate world provided a pay check and a ladder that I did willingly bank, and climb.  I was a hippy graduate, a wife, a mother trained to teach and able to translate corporate-ese into working folk languge.  In a suit I did my work and took my training into the world of retail just before the shift from 'small' to 'mega'.  My pay checks, perks and writing skills gave me an inside track to the way corporations work.  I was privy to the slippery nature of words, advertising and contracts.  I am not proud of the role I played as intermediary ... the middle manager with the gift of gab and art for writing 'common-ese'.  What I do value though was my eventual inner clockworks that told me to step away.

Ha, what does that bit of history have to do with the title of this post "Words are slippery ... read more about labels"?  Yes, to the point.  An update to my progress with finding an alternative dish soap leads me to this:

1. I have found a local source for Dr. Bronner's soap in our town, and will venture into the store to buy one of the trial size bottles of the Sensitive (and unscented) Castile Baby Soaps.  If I'm good with that, I'll dilute the soap and try it as a dish soap.
2. In the meantime, my husband did dishes this morning using baking soda diluted in hot water, rinsed the dishes with very hot water and pronounced the dishes "pretty squeeky."  
3. On the 'what about the words on the bottle issue"

Read Labels Part 1 here:  http://fragrancefreein23.blogspot.com/2012/02/keep-reading-those-labels.html

A friend in town wrote to the Planet Inc. people and got a reply in answer to her query about the change in the labeling.  I haven't asked her if I can use her email to fill in this blog post, yet.  But in essence the company's reply was:  Planet Ultra Dishwashing Liquid  is just as it's always been; the label now uses an expanded version of the ingredients.  (the italics are mine).

I say, "Yikes and watch your step.  It's slippery there."  I have two bottles of Planet Ultra Dishwashing Liquid and though these bespectacled eyes are still those same blurry old eyes, I look more closely and report this is what I see:

1. BOTTLE #1 with written list of OUR INGREDIENTS reads:  Coconut Oil Based Cleaners - Salt - Sodium Bicarbonate.  At the very bottom of the label found on the back of the cleaner is the (c) copyright date, 2004 Planet Inc.
2. BOTTLE #2 with written list of OUR INGREDIENTS reads:  -Water (carrier) - Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauramine Oxide (plant-based cleaning agents) - Sodium Chloride (mineral viscosity adjuster) - Sodium Bicrdonate (mineral alkalinity adjuster).  At the very bottom of the label found on the back of the cleaner is the (c) copyright date, 2011 Planet Inc.

Let the slippery slope of words and the wish to be safe with your dish soap in old(er) age serve you in whatever way it might.  To my way of living and being, I am who I am, and know what I am.  Beware, the labels you read can change.  Is it worth a battle over a trifle difference such as this?  Choose your battle they say.  Or, at the very least, know words for what they can be.

And you?