Got a lot of comments that that song from yesterday about how I am the real Lex Friedman and not the guy without the E.

Got a lot of comments that that song is a real earworm.

My favorite comment was somebody who wrote to me on Mastodon.

You heard what I almost said.

But David McDonald wrote to me and said, I have a doctorate in music composition and I can confirm this is an excellent song.

So listen, if a music composition doctor treating all the ailments that music compositions have, he can conclude that it’s an excellent song.

I guess it really is.

It is very weird to get a song stuck in your head that’s about your own name when you’re singing in your mind that you’re the you’re the real Lex Friedman.

It’s weird.

Speaking of songs about me, your daily Lex.

We not infrequently on this show and by we, I mean me reference the great John Siracusa, mostly because he is a fascinating man.

But John had recently discovered that there were toothbrushing behaviors that were foreign to him, were unusual to him or shocking to him.

He was talking about this in a slack.

They were both in the incomparable staff slack, I guess.

And then he knew that I was likely to talk about it on this podcast.

And he’s like, don’t don’t talk about it on your daily Lex until my rec diffs, reconcilable differences podcast episode comes out about it, which it has now done.

So John, like many people, but maybe not a majority of people, has a cup by his bathroom sink that he uses to rinse after he brushes his teeth.

He was shocked or even horrified to learn that many of us are hand cuppers, right?

You take the water from the sink, you pour some into your hand, you slurp that up, and that’s how you rinse.

And then there are folks who go directly from the faucet, right?

Treat the faucet like a water fountain and blow from there to rinse their mouths.

John’s point is, well, there’s cups, cups exist.

You should use them.

I know my parents are bathroom cup users, but yeah, I just I haven’t been.

My kids did for a time and eventually didn’t.

Possibly Liam still does, but I find those cups get gross pretty quickly.

And yeah, you can take them down to the dishwasher, whatever you can wash them out.

You can rinse them out, but gross.

This conversation also spurred a ton of debate about should you rinse after brushing your teeth?

And the internet advice, I would say, is mixed on this.

Most people I know, I think, do rinse after they brush their teeth, right?

You rinse and spit out the toothpaste.

But a lot of people on the internet, including dentists, like to advocate for leaving the toothpaste on, like spit, spit, spit, but don’t rinse so that you can keep the extra fluoride or whatever from the toothpaste on your teeth doing its magic.

And then there’s the folks who do the mouthwash.

And with mouthwash, you know, for years and years mouthwash was had alcohol, which is why I loved to drink it with a rock or two.

Just kidding.

But, you know, more recently, there are plenty of innovations in mouthwash that are alcohol free because apparently alcohol is not great for your mouth health long term as a mouthwash.

So my routine, as I told John, is slightly more embarrassing, at least in the morning, because I will brush my teeth, spit, not rinse.

And then once I’m in the shower, I will allow the shower to rinse out my mouth.

I’ll use the shower to do it.

But that’s that could be, you know, five, 10, 15 minutes post toothbrushing, depending on what my morning routine is typically probably around five minutes.

And so that’s, you know, that’s my thing.

I only use mouthwash at night.

But after John mentioned that he, you know, he said that he rinses because he’s about to use a mouthwash that has fluoride in it and it doesn’t rinse, obviously, after the mouthwash.

And I checked my alcohol free mouthwash and it doesn’t have fluoride.

So I’ve got to change that up and or I’m happy to report from the future that all my teeth have fallen out.

As you probably can hear from whatever changes have happened to my voice over the past couple of hours, I had to pause and come back to this podcast much later than when I started.

I think you all love when that happens.

But anyway, John was horrified, I think, to find out that many, many, many people don’t use cups to rinse in the bathroom.

Even if you do, I have to encourage you don’t use glassware at hotel bathrooms because they use the same rag to clean everything that they do to clean those glasses out.

Don’t use glasses.

If they have a paper cup and you want to use a paper cup, I support you.

Like you do you.

You handle your teeth cleanliness and rinsing the way that suits you best.

But don’t use reusable cups in hotels because that’s gross.

Anyway, happy Tuesday.

And my dog says hi too.

Lex.

Bye bye.