Gorjess writes in myLot

Gorjess (974) ranked 1,379 out of 34,226 in people

I hate it when people do this. Ever since working in retail and coming face to face with many people a day I've learned what horrible habits people have! People who lick their fingers nearly always do it when they don't need to. They will lick their fingers to open a carrier bag, but if they'd looked, they'd see I'd already opened it. They lick their fingers to get a credit card out of their wallet, how does this make sense? Surely this would make it harder to pull a shiny card out? They will lick their fingers and give me the spit covered money and expect me to say thank you! They will hold their card in their mouth then take it out and pass it to me, as if they are a baby.. They will hold a note between their teeth and then pass it to me.

I am sick of it, I think it is such bad manners. People spread so many germs by licking their fingers. One customer even licked his fingers then entered a pin on the machine, why was this needed? People who lick their fingers mainly do it because it's their habit. I think it is a bad habit.

My fingers get so dirty at work there is no way I will lick my fingers, I never do it anyway. Someone at my work did it once and a customer complained, no doubt this customer licks their fingers too..

Are you a finger licker?

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Tim writes in his Retail Blog

Today I had a few spitters. They're actually fairly common; you may be one yourself. It's the people who lick their thumb or finger to separate two pieces of paper. This one woman was having trouble separating the credit card receipt after signing it so she stuck her thumb in her mouth and slicked it up with about an ounce of saliva. Then she used it to separate the two pieces of paper and, oblivious to the look of horror on my face, tried to hand me the store copy. No offense to anyone who does it but I'm not down with someone handing me their sopping wet receipt to file. It seems even worse to do it to money. I'll be standing there waiting for someone to count off a few bills from their wallet and suddenly the finger darts to the tongue, then back to the cash. Haven't they heard that four out of five bills have traces of cocaine, urine or feces on them? Small amounts to be sure, but I'm still not down with the moist art of the Finger-licking Paper-separation Maneuver.

Clink link to his blog entry

David Hanney writes in BootsnAll

Health

We have spent over 50 days in Bali now over the past three years and have not been sick once. Several years ago the expression "Bali Belly" had more meaning, as the eating-places had not caught up with basic hygiene good practices.

The basic rules are these: -

...

Avoid licking your fingers after handling money - I guess that applies anywhere in the world.

...

Click here to go to his article

Josh L. posts in his blog, Daily Encounters with the World

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Dirty Money + Licking your fingers = Unhappy person receiving your money

Do you lick your fingers while you eat? Personally I do and watching other people do so doesn't bother me whatsoever. What does bother me is when people are about to give me some money and they lick their fingers to separate the bills. Do they not realize that I have to touch that money? I know money is dirty anyways, but to add somebody else's saliva is a whole new story. Maybe you've never thought about this before, but after reading this little post you may be surprised at how many people actually do this. If you're one of these people that lick your fingers to separate money or turn pages in a magazine or book please do the world a favor and STOP!

Click link to his blog post

parris43 picture post in Flickr:

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Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17423422.700-dirty-money.html

From New Scientist Print Edition.

Don't lick your fingers while counting your cash in India. Soiled rupee banknotes are breeding grounds for the bugs that cause tonsillitis, pneumonia and tuberculosis, say scientists at the Regional Sophisticated Instrumentation Centre in Shillong. "The risk is serious. Many notes in India are soiled and held together with bits of sticky tape. These notes are potential killers," says researcher Sudip Dey. The problem is worst in north-eastern India, he says, where notes tend to stay in circulation longer. The central Reserve Bank of India says it is working hard to replace old notes with new ones as quickly as possible.

Click here for link.

Duane Alan Hahn writes:

Most people would feel silly going around licking everything around them, but they basically do the same thing when they lick their fingers to turn pages or count money. It's a nasty habit that can also make a person sick.

People who lick their fingers to turn pages because they haven't learned the simple skill of turning pages correctly are bad enough, but people who lick their fingers while counting money must be lacking any kind of common sense. Do they have any idea where that money has been?

The money being counted could have been shoved down a stripper's G-string, stuffed in the crevices of a diseased prostitute, used to snort drugs, dropped on the ground, stepped on, sneezed on, and any number of other things and these people wonder why they always get sick.

It's hard enough to stay well in a world where the equivalent of millions of petri dish experiments cover almost everything around us, so to constantly stick your dirty fingers into your eyes, nose, or mouth is insane.

Read his post here:

Dr. Marian Sonnenfeld writes in the Boston Globe:

THE FLU is rampant once again. A potential disease-spreading behavior that has flown under the radar for far too long is the habit of licking one's fingers to gain traction before picking up papers or opening plastic bags. Sales clerks frequently do this. While it makes the immediate task easier, this practice raises public health concerns since it directly transfers saliva containing bacteria and viruses to materials that are then handed to others. The practice is ubiquitous, even occurring in doctors' offices.

I expect this act is so unconscious that many people are completely unaware of it. It is unhealthy for everyone, including its practitioners, since every time they bring fingers to lips they are bringing whatever germs they've picked up from the surfaces they've touched.

Inexpensive fingertip moisteners can be purchased at office supply stores, and employers should provide these or similar devices at registers and other locations where workers may be handling papers or currency.

Click here to read more of her article here.

veryscary posted this on Flickr:

I saw this sign at Broadview Station on my way home. The ticket taker guy asked me why I was taking this photo. I said it was funny. He did not see the humour in it and then ranted on about how he has to deal with handling people's "germ" infested money. He did not see the humor in this sign and he was not pleased that I wanted to take a snap of it. I intentionally left his face out of it to protect him (and myself) from humiliation.

Click to view his post here:

Asmita P. wrote:

I have always found the old lick-n-flick routine an extremely disgusting practice with people who handle cash a lot. Luckily a developer from Seattle has designed a fingertip grip that not only improves hand dexterity by leaps but also rids you of...

Here's the link. Thanks Asmita.