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Lumifer comments on Stupid Questions, December 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: polymathwannabe 01 December 2015 10:40PM

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Comment author: LessWrong 10 December 2015 07:33:45AM *  0 points [-]

I gave my book to my dad and I noticed him licking his finger to turn pages. I exploded and took the book away from him. I apologized later and explained this annoys me to no end.

Can anyone explain why people do it? FWIW I occasionally had two page turn at once and very rarely three at ones. I'm guessing it's something with the ink, just to make my head work a bit. Or perhaps something to do with older books. Can anyone explain why people do this? I ran a search and I only got even more questions, like if it spreads germs.

(My dad said he always did it, so he's rather unhelpful too)

Comment author: Lumifer 10 December 2015 07:03:39PM *  3 points [-]

A dry finger slides easily on paper, a wet finger sticks to it (and moves it).

Cashiers often have a wet sponge on hand to moisten their finger when counting banknotes.