“Cultural Drift: Cleaning Methods”, 2013-05-07 (; backlinks):
Forgotten chores and their use by Romanticism
Some old books mention sandy floors and sprinkling water on the ground; these asides seem to go unnoticed by most/all readers. I highlight them, explain and discuss their use as now-obsolete cleaning practices, poll Internet users to see how forgotten they are, and ponder implications. In an appendix, I discuss a similar issue I encountered in pre-Space-Race American science fiction.