Okay…I am still working at getting all my Christmas cards in the mail. The newsletter is printed, the cards are all in the addressed and stamped envelopes, and the only thing left to do is to seal the envelopes. What a long, tedious task! (Has anyone ever found Christmas cards with a “peel and seal” envelope?) I cannot lick an envelope! I just can’t do it. Several years ago I read the following stories. I thought they could be “urban legends” and Snopes.com confirmed the stories are not true. Still … I cannot lick an envelope! Thus the tedious, time consuming task of sealing each envelope with a glue stick.
1. There were a couple of employees who worked in an envelope factory. They said that when the glue machine jams up, they use whatever water is handy to thin out the glue. This includes water that they just mopped the floor with.
2. A woman working in a post office would lick the envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge. One day the lady cut her tongue on the envelope. A week later, she noticed an abnormal swelling of her tongue. She went to the doctor, and they found nothing wrong. Her tongue was not sore or anything. A couple of days later, her tongue started to swell more, and it began to get really sore, so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital and the doctor took an x-ray of her tongue and noticed a lump. He prepared her for minor surgery. When the doctor cut her tongue open, a live cockroach crawled out! There were roach eggs on the seal of the envelope and the eggs were able to hatch inside of her tongue where it was warm and moist.
3. A man who used to work for a print shop was told to NEVER to lick the envelopes. He never understood why until he had to go into storage and pull out envelopes that were already printed for a customer. He saw roaches roaming around inside of the boxes. The insects eat the glue on the envelopes which is why print shops have a harder time controlling roaches than a restaurant.
And this is why I always buy “seal and peel” envelopes, or I use a glue stick to seal them. Ha!
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