At Least They Didn’t Mention Sex

I read on the BBC that Energy Australia, one of the continent’s major power suppliers, released a report stating that the average Australian spends an average of seven minutes in the shower each day. I spend more time than that just getting the tangles out of my hair after I wash it, so I figured this factoid was either the start of an editorial about how Australians all have offensive body odor, or a style piece saying they’ve all got crew cuts.

But no. Energy Australia thinks Aussies are spending too much time in the shower. Specifically, the company says, they sing too much:

Energy Australia wants customers to choose shorter songs. Long showers are also soaking up electricity like a sponge, the company says.

Other shower time activities are also being frowned upon - shaving, brushing one's teeth, playing with toys, even day-dreaming. The emphatic message from Energy Australia is: "Don't use the shower, use the sink."

The odd thing about this little story is that it’s not water the shorter showers are supposed to save, but electricity. Don’t Australians have computers? Of course they do; I’ve exchanged e-mails with people down there. And they have televisions, refrigerators, lamps and even air-conditioning, the same electrical gadgets as any other Western industrialized nation.

So how is it that if they’re using too much electricity, the electric company concludes that customers need to reduce their shower time?