I'm a Crisco girl, myself. For seasoning cast-iron pans, that is.
And I'm also in the "it's okay to wash it" camp, because I use a lot of marinades that tend to burn on and need to be soaked off. If I'm concerned that I may have damaged the seasoned coating, I just heat up the pan after cleaning, brush on some Crisco, heat it until it barely starts to smoke, then let it sit. When it's cool I wipe out any extra.
TWC: it's a good idea to reseason the pan every so often in any case. And you'll know if/when it needs it, anyway: it starts to develop rust spots. Just scrub those off with steel wool and reseason. No need to junk the pan. (Although hey, free shipping for a cast-iron pan -- wow!
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