September 14, 2025

By Arthur H.Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

     As newspapers morph from print to digital, even disappear, an old habit does as well: The two, three-finger exercise. 

     Remember your father or mother reading the paper, either full size or tabloid? They might sit at the kitchen table between chores and look first at the front page or at the back sports page, then turn the pages one by one, scanning headlines and looking at photos and then the ads. At each turn, they would take their right hand, gather the thumb and the next finger or two and wet them with a tip of the tongue so that they could grab the next page without them bunching together.

     How much printers’ ink they absorbed is not known, but the habit was there for millions of readers in the past few centuries.  That habit could be extended to book reading or separating writing paper, etc.

     When you think of it, the method was reassuring because it was opening the door to page after page of information, entertainment, visuals and ads for products whether you could afford them or not.

     We all crave information, and here it was at our fingertips. An old tradition now giving way to screen clicks and flipping up content. Not the same.

     The writer is a retired newspaperman.

                      -30-