Jami Worries about White and Wrong

Have you seen the commercials where they show you the two socks, one washed with "detergent only" and one with bleach added? If you haven't, I'm sorry to spoil the ending, but the bleached one is white. Blindingly, shockingly WHITE. (I tried to make that text white with a black highlight, but the code I know didn't work in blogger. Anyway .. .) Yes, the other sock, by comparison, looks a bit dingy. It looks, well, like a sock that has actually been worn. Oh dear! Am I cursing my family to wear less-than-white socks? Yes. I surely am. Don't get me wrong, as a nearly germ-a-phobe, I'm a huge fan of bleach. I bleach the sinks, the toilet, the tub, all sorts of things. But I don't add it to my whites. Why? Because it's not needed there. That sock in the commercial? Pause your TiVo or DVR and put your hand over the shiny white bleached sock and take a look at the other one. Looks fine. See, without the immediate comparison, it's totally clean and white enough. So why would I pour a good germ-killing cleaner into the washing machine when no one will be looking that closely at my family's socks? Bleach costs money (this is why they want you to use it, in case you didn't understand their motivation), and I have never, in my life, noticed that someone's socks are clean, but not-quite-as-white as they should be. This also reminds me of the old "ring-around-the-collar" commercials. I found them slightly disturbing: 1. What IS that ring?? Are these business men wearing make-up or something? 2. How close to my husband do you have to be to discover the ring on the inside of his shirt and if you're that close, I think we're going to have a bigger problem than some phantom ring. 3. Has anyone EVER noticed anyone else's ring around the collar? If so, did you immediately think "Gee, his wife must be a sucky laundress?" Or did you think "Dang, that guy needs to shower more?" which is what I personally would think. That's all.