This morning, on my train ride to work, there was a furious tissue exchange. Two women, one sitting next to me, the other standing next to her, spent a good five minutes passing tissues back and forth. The one next to me would pull one out -- she had the kind that come in the plastic pouches -- hand it to the standing woman, and watch. The stander would paw at it for a few seconds; turn it over, hold it up to the light, and otherwise examine it. Then, amazingly, based on some hidden clue she'd discovered within, she would hand it back to the sitting woman, or keep it for herself.

Because they had, for whatever reason, decided to engage in their trading on a moving train, the one standing up was constantly in danger of falling, or stumbling into someone else, for she was using two hands to do the examinations. In what I guess was an attempt to help, the sitter would, while the other was inspecting, hold on to her elbow with her one free hand. The other hand, of course, was busy clutching her share of tissues.

This went on, as I say, for about five minutes. A tissue returned would be set aside and, as near as I can tell, not offered again. Whatever the particulars of the standing woman's process were, when they were done they both had about half of the original pack. The sitting woman then began to insert her share back into the pouch.

This accomplished, she produced a tube of some sort of lather which, in the fashion of the moment, was passed back and forth until they were both glistening with lotion, and I was sneezing from the fumes. I thought about asking for a tissue, but...

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