This may be a silly question and it may have been already discussed, in which case, i apologuise, but i just saw the Tuesday (i think, i had taped a couple) TNT episode, "Friendly Fire", and i just had to wonder, how on earth had Carter been getting clean clothes his entire adult life if he couldn't work a laundromat washer?!? Yes, i understand it was a plot device to show the difference between him and Anna, but still! Generally speaking, most college campuses have coin operated laundry facilities (at least all the ones *I* know of, anyway), so wouldn't he have had to figured out how to use them when he was in college, even if he lived at home while he was in med school (unless he also lived at home while he was in college, i haven't a clue as if he went to college and med school in the same place)? Also, he's had an apartment for at least part of the show, and don't most apartments also have coin operated laundry machines? Yeah, i know, this is quite nitpicky, but it really, really bugged me that he couldn't figure out how to do his laundry in a laundromat, especially since it's not that complicated- if he could do surgery, etc., i should hope he posseses the basic intelligence to read the directions on a washer!

-- kim (miss_lucy21@hotmail.com), June 30, 2000

Answers

I agree with you. Carter mentioned in an episode in season one that he went to college at Penn, so he most likely lived in a dorm. Also, I happen to know that they have coin operated laundrey machines there (my cousin goes there and I just went up and visited her a couple of months ago). How he never learned, I'll never know! :)

-- Adorra (er_chick24@hotmail.com), July 01, 2000.

I think it's a "guy" thing. (Sorry guys!) I have a roomate who has lived away from home for four years, and he is constantly overloading my washer and dryer, and mixing colors and whites. We used to help each other out with the laundry, but I don't let him do mine anymore :)

-- Beth (BSmith@internet-95.com), July 01, 2000.

I used to work at a drycleaners. People would frequently bring in their laundry -- all of it, not just dryclean only items -- and we would do it for them. Carter could have easily taken his clothes and had them professionaly cleaned. After all, he still had his trust fund then.

-- Kristal (teetle1@juno.com), July 01, 2000.

Carter comes from a very wealthy family. He probably brought his laundry home on the weekends and had the maid do it. It's perfectly plausible that he'd never operated a washer/dryer before, much less a coin-operated one.

-- Carin Haseltine (cdenisehaze@usa.net), July 01, 2000.

Oh, I think that's a "guy" thing. My dad, who wasn't rich at all, had no clue how to wash whites/colors or when to put bleach. And guys at college, sometimes I think they never wash their clothes:) Although I didn't think it was too believable for him to have never operated a coin-wash machine before. That, was just stupid.

-- samira (matb_west@chickmail.com), July 01, 2000.

I would think that when he was in college and in med school that Carter would bring his laundry home. I mean I know most college kids do that. As for when he was living in an apartment, we all know that Carter wears suits and ties to work so its possible that he would have them dry-clean.

Abigail, Carterologist

-- abigail (abbyqueen@aol.com), July 02, 2000.

If he was in college in town, I bet he'd have taken it home to his maid or paid to have it done (and the latter if out of town). I used to not have a washer/dryer and watched people (yes, mostly men) drop their laundry off or pick it up at the laundrymat while I was there doing mine. You can pay to have anything done these days. I'm betting at large universities, there's a drop-off, pick-up service these days!

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), July 02, 2000.