Some of Our Best Friends Are Germs

Friday is No Housework Day. This one stumps a lot of folks. Designer Christopher Lowell, who admits he couldn’t identify his own vacuum cleaner in a lineup, says it’s hard to celebrate not doing something he doesn’t do anyway. “Isn’t life too short?” Actually, the question you want to ask is, “What would Lucy Ricardo do?” As Lucille Ball, at right, rendered her on “I Love Lucy” in the 1950s, Lucy was the queen of the domestic science insurgency, dreaming up weekly avenues of escape to the domain where she really wanted to clean up: show business. (BTW, Lowell’s favorite episode is No. 128, “Lucy Visits Grauman’s.”)