I doubt there is enhanced disease risk from card/cash lickers (saliva is, after all, antimicrobial). But such behavior is gross.
I might be tempted (at the risk of being deemed passive-aggressive) to respond by having my dog attend games and smearing a bit of peanut butter on the cards so he could slurp it off.
Back when I worked at a drugstore, we had cashiers who would stash their snacks next to the register, and munch on chips or whatever in between handling filthy lucre with their powdery, greasy fingers. Slurp!
So this sort of begs this question: If one is at the cashier and must–for whatever reason–pay with cash but the ony two bills in your wallet are brand new and stuck together, how do you separate them without licking your fingers? Don’t suggest giving the other bill as a tip/donation.
I really want to know because this just recently happened to me and I felt foolish trying to get the bills apart. I eventually did but it took way too long. (P.S. Their credit card device was off-line so cash was the only expedient alternative.)
I recall calling out Bob of Bob’s Septic Service to pump my tank a few years after I bought my first house with a septic tank. After stuffing his filthy truck’s filthy hose down into the nether regions of my filthy tank with his filthy hands he activated the sucking pump which made truly amazing slurping noises, opened his lunchbox, pulled out a sandwich, and ate it. While standing downwind of the fumes and the occasional watery mist rising from the hose port.
No gloves, no washing, no nothing. And most importantly, no concern. Most of us are far too squeamish for our own good. Bob is a hero.
My MIL has to lick her fingers before she touches pretty much anything. Then she can’t just put something down, she has to pat it several times, I’m guessing to make sure it stays put. It’s an OCD thing with her, I’m sure. I love the woman dearly but that little quirk has always squigged me out.
Rub your fingers back and forth, with the bills between them. At least, that’s what i think i do. I have literally never licked my fingers to handle money, and i have separated brand new bills that wanted to stick together.
Supermarkets I go to have an apparatus that periodically sprays water on some of their produce. I head over to the nearest water sprayer when confounded by a stubborn plastic produce bag.
I just riffle the sides and rub them together like a plastic bag in the produce section. I’ve never had 2 bills stuck together THAT well, that they wouldn’t come apart with a little riffle and rub.
Right, I’ve never licked my fingers to handle ANYTHING and I think it is a bizarre and disgusting habit. Even besides the germ spreading aspect, you are gradually ruining everything you are touching. If you do it while turning the pages of a book, the pages will be nasty by the time you’ve read it once or twice.
My in-laws’ decks of cards look like old business cards after a couple months of play because of how much saliva they’ve soaked up over time. You can’t shuffle or deal them properly anymore because of the extra wear and tear.
Bills don’t stick for but although honestly I am more paying with plastic …
The plastic bags though … rubbing does not open them for me (cool dry hands) and putting your dirty fingers on the sprayer or even the spray that then goes over all the vegetables instead of just the one you are picking up? THAT’S disturbing!