This morning on the bus a woman sat next to me reading a newspaper. I started watching her from the corner of my eye once I noticed she was one of those people who lick their finger before turning the page (ick! It’s a public newspaper, other people will read it!). I find that habit so baffling.

But then I noticed something else which almost made me chuckle out loud: she licked her right index finger as soon as she started reading the second page of each spread — long before she needed it for page-turning — and half the time she used the other, dry hand!

I usually resort to finger licking when I’ve already struggled for some time trying to open a freezer bag (the ones I have are slippery). And then the saliva will only be transmitted to me after disinfection in the freezer.

What I started thinking is, how much ink will these people swallow in their lifetime? I almost would’ve guessed Mythbusters had done an urban legend test on this but maybe not… (and the hits I got on Google were frankly very weird)