Licking your finger to help you distribute paper

[Mation]

Did you do this in the before times? Will you continue?

This already gave me the horrors before the pandemic. Why would anyone think it's ok to give a handout with your gob all over it? (Gazillions of people do, I just don't get it, even though it can be tricky to separate sheets of paper.)

Last time I can clearly remember it happening was just before we started hearing about the weird 'flu' out of Wuhan. My uni module leader had particular trouble with a worksheet she was giving out and did a repeat finger lick. I actually yelped

If you used to do it, but won't in future, what will you do instead? What other unsanitary habits might you have to rethink? I have to work out how not to rub my eyes all the bloody time

 

[Epona]

No I have never done that, it's disgusting!

I worked in the Civil Service for a very long time and you just don't go licking your hands and touching paper in an office environment with a lot of people, and you most certainly did not lick envelopes.

(Back in the day when there was a lot of paper, you actually had a damp sponge in a holder on your desk for envelopes and for handling paper a rubber thumb - that is probably not the right name for it, but it is a knobbly rubber thimble for want of a better description - for that sort of thing, you didn't ever lick your hands and touch stuff or lick envelopes to stick them down or anything like that)

 

[Saul Goodman]

No I have never done that, it's disgusting!

Anyone who does it is a dirty, filthy, minging bastard. Why not just spit on each page?
I had to pull someone up at the bank one time, for spitting all over the money she was counting out for me. What sort of filthy fuck does something like that.

 

[Sprocket.]

No, utterly disgusting thing to do. Same kind of story.

I don’t know if it was the reason, but I was told by someone who had caught dysentery while overseas, that it was down to them counting out the vast amount of paper money they exchanged in their destination.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Thankfully I rarely touch paper at work - do everything online. But yes, I used to lick my finger to separate troublesome bundles of paper, although they were my copies rather than something that would be shared with others. I'm still alive.

 

[Mation]

Thankfully I rarely touch paper at work - do everything online. But yes, I used to lick my finger to separate troublesome bundles of paper, although they were my copies rather than something that would be shared with others. I'm still alive.

Licking your own paper is probably fine; Rizlas etc.

Hmm. Stamps. I don't think I'm going to be doing that anymore, now I think of it!

 

[William of Walworth]

No I have never done that, it's disgusting!

I worked in the Civil Service for a very long time and you just don't go licking your hands and touching paper in an office environment with a lot of people, and you most certainly did not lick envelopes.

(Back in the day when there was a lot of paper, you actually had a damp sponge in a holder on your desk for envelopes and for handling paper a rubber thumb - that is probably not the right name for it, but it is a knobbly rubber thimble for want of a better description - for that sort of thing, you didn't ever lick your hands and touch stuff or lick envelopes to stick them down or anything like that)

Those thimbles, and I don't think they've ever had an actual name, are still around, and used by some people, in my bit of the CS.

 

[Spymaster]

Anyone who does it is a dirty, filthy, minging bastard.

Yeah, I do it. Not on handouts because I don’t hand paper out, but on newspapers and occasionally books. But they’re mine so you lot can fuck off!

 

[Mation]

Yeah, I do it. Not on handouts because I don’t hand paper out, but on newspapers and occasionally books. But they’re mine so you lot can fuck off!

Grim, but safe.

 

[Spymaster]

Want to borrow some books?

 

[Spymaster]

I remember seeing my mum do it when I was a kid and being impressed at how easy it was to turn pages when I tried it. There were no such things as germs in the 70s though.

 

[JimW]

If your snot's runny it works much better than plain spittle.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Licking your own paper is probably fine; Rizlas etc.

Hmm. Stamps. I don't think I'm going to be doing that anymore, now I think of it!

What if you like the taste of stamp/envelope glue?

 

[Mation]

What if you like the taste of stamp/envelope glue?

As long as you're not using them for postage, perving over stamps is acceptable. You pervert.

 

[Mation]

If your snot's runny it works much better than plain spittle.

And you...

 

[Mation]

I don't have much (any) occasion to do it any more, but I used to like rolling rollies for other people. That's out.

 

[Mattym]

On one of the bigger livestreams I've recently watched, one of the DJs licked a finger before operating the CD deck/mixer. I'm fairly certain it was a communal set up. Euuurrggggghhhhh!

 

[gentlegreen]

The other day I had cause to remember the sharing of water bottles in the loved-up '90s and contrasting it with the spraying of bands with mouthfuls of beer in the late 70s ...



I'm struggling to imagine ever entering a cafe or restaurant again - let alone an entertainment venue

 

[Lord Camomile]

This is one of the many ways in which I think I was already suited to living during a pandemic, massive cootie-phobe.

To the point where I wouldn't drink out of the same glass as my girlfriends, which I knew and know doesn't make logical sense, but 98% of the time it just wigged me out.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Hmm. Stamps. I don't think I'm going to be doing that anymore, now I think of it!

Standard book of stamps come as stickers now, rather than the traditional ones you have to lick the backs of.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Standard book of stamps come as stickers now, rather than the traditional ones you have to lick the backs of.

Shame!

 

[Pickman's model]

When I worked in an archive I'd see people licking their fingers to turn pages. Archival material can be covered in all sorts of nasty things so aside from the damage you can do the item you might pick up a nasty fungal infection. I always asked them if they'd seen the name of the rose and explained it might be a bad idea to get stuff from eg drainage plans into their mouths. Few people did it twice.

 

[gentlegreen]

This is one of the many ways in which I think I was already suited to living during a pandemic, massive cootie-phobe.

To the point where I wouldn't drink out of the same glass as my girlfriends, which I knew and know doesn't make logical sense, but 98% of the time it just wigged me out.

My attitude was already primed to change.
Ever since my 20s, with a healthy diet and daily exercise, I grew used to having 4 days sickness per year - rarely ever had secondary symptoms - except for a few discrete incidences of sinusitis and bronchitis (cycling all year probably didn't help with that) just a fever and being knackered - even one case of recognisable flu at 53 (had to pee in a bottle and crawl up the stairs to the bathroom once a day) saw me back on the bike on the Monday ...
I work in a massively public building handling IT equipment with minimal hand-washing ..

But two years running I've had multiple illnesses per year and two years in a row I was hit with something that kept me home for weeks - last year was ostensibly the sickest I have ever been in my life - if I'd taken my temperature I suspect might well have been dialling 111.

I probably caught my lurgies at work - and since I'm now taking care when shopping, I suspect I will never know.

 

[William of Walworth]

Logical consequence of some of this chat re-paperlicking, is that if you're offered a spliff at a festival** etc., you in all circumstances refuse

**Remember those?

 

[Roadkill]

Those thimbles, and I don't think they've ever had an actual name, are still around, and used by some people, in my bit of the CS.

I found a box of them in the stationery cupboard at work shortly before lockdown and snaffled a coupl to avoid the finger-licking issue.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I do it. It's disgusting I know. I don't do it any more as I have become absolutely aware of what a vile and potentially dangerous thing it is.

 

[Mation]

Standard book of stamps come as stickers now, rather than the traditional ones you have to lick the backs of.

Oh yeah!

 

[Mattym]

I'm going to get one of them damperpads and moisten it with hand sanitiser.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

If your snot's runny it works much better than plain spittle.

Spunk is even better. Not in the office obviously.

 

[JimW]

Spunk is even better. Not in the office obviously.

Bound to be a bit on your fingers even then unless you're one of those weirdos who washes.