because water ends up in the valley, we believe it naturally flows downhill... but we don't know what it's doing while we aren't watching.

say for instance you've just gotten out of the shower and therefore you have water on your skin. you want to put your clothes on without getting them all wet because then they'll stick to you and that's just annoying. how will you remove the water from your skin without getting it on the clothes you want to wear?

you could air dry, but firstly, that can take quite a while so maybe you don't have that kind of time and perhaps also let's say you wanted to have a cuppa javajoe right then, well sorry but you cannot just take off traipsing thru the house with your air drying self unless you live alone in a house with no windows because to be perfectly honest, no one wants to see that. lastly, the air dry method is not recommended in public places such as locker rooms, prisons, or grocery stores.

a sort of extension to the air dry method is to use an air accelerator [aka, blow dryer] to heat and velocitize the air. this is really a superior idea if you ignore the fact that you are soaking wet and standing in a puddle and reaching for an electrical appliance.

another option would be to put on some clothes you don't want to wear and allow them to desorb the water from your skin, and then change into the clothes you wanted to wear. this sounds like a great idea, but it doesn't really pan out because besides that terry romper from 1974, clothing is just not that absorbent.

you could waggle all around and shake off the water like a dog does, but trust me, this one doesn't work.
so really what you need is a device specifically designed to remove the water from your skin. i suggest: the towel. wah-lah! the primary purpose of a towel is to increase the dryness of the surrounding area by increasing the wetness of itself. a towel causes liquid to desorb from its existing location into the towel. a towel also doubles as a stellar piece of temporary clothing for traipsing thru to get that javajoe.

HOWEVER

not all towels are created equal.

in the realm of hotel towels - those big, fluffy towels that you'll get in a fancy hotel are wacked out. you touch your wet skin with those things and i swear those towels are like - "oh, no you di'nt!" they don't want to have anything to do with being wet because they are delusional and think they are too good for water. much better are those skinny little towels you get in a motel6. they are all like - "so... thirsty... so... thirsty..." like they are crawling across the towel desert. they can't wait to soak up some soapy skinwater.

then you have your beach towels - those brightly-coloured decorated items with the one side all soft like velvet. these are useless desorbers. aluminum foil soaks up more water. they are, however, nice to sit on, so they really belong less in the "towel" group and more in the genus "furniturea".

there is an inverse relationship between the cost of towels and their performance of the basic towel duty of absorption. of the 5 towels i have that are the most bestest at being towels, 3 came from big lots and 2 were free. the ones from big lots i got many years ago before big lots went upscale. yes, they did and if you think they didn't then you have no idea what you are talking about. these towels are well propotioned & well behaved and they cost like $1 each. a towel like that at big lots today would cost you $8 easy. upscalers! the two free towels i got by saving & mailing in bit-o-honey wrappers. they were billed as beach towels but they aren't that useless velvet kind, and they have a big bit-o-honey splashed across with a picture of a bee there buzzing around. i mean, c'mon, who doesn't love bit-o-honey! plus, having that giant-sized bee right there keeps the other bees away. it's like your personal scarebee. what? you don't believe me? well, i use these scarebee towels all the time and i am never bothered by bees, so there you have it.