Gross! But interesting.

Romance novelist Hope Tarr recently wrote a guest post for the blog Heroes and Heartbreakers called "Keeping “It” Clean: Hygiene, Hot Sex, and the Historical Romance Novel". This is a subject near and dear to my heart (as longtime readers know, I generally refuse to read pre-Regency Era romance novels, because I can't bear the thought of all those un-brushed teeth), so I read the post with great interest. Tarr does her best to be reassuring, but I'm not sold. I'm frequently grossed out by modern hygiene*; the idea of bathing with animal-fat-based soaps leaves me more than a little queasy.

*Thanks largely to my experience in retail. You would not believe how disgusting money can get, or where people will store it.