I think the 3 second rule applies here.
It is a scientific fact that as long as you pick it up within 3 seconds then the germs don't have time to get onto the plate.
( girlinthehole, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:34, 3 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I like the idea that one of the germs
has got a stopwatch and a whistle, to enforce this rule.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:36, Reply)

Loving that picture Tulip :-)
In my mind, he's a germ drill instructor type wearing a 1920's bathing suit... "DIIIIVE!"
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 21:08, Reply)

Yeah, I've heard that one.
Maybe it's something to do with their teensy size that time goes loads faster for them, bit like dog/cat years only much much faster, so those three seconds are a couple of centuries worth of terraforming to them. Brush em off in three seconds, you'll be fine.

Leave it five, there'll be germ skyscrapers, swimming baths, parliament sessions, maybe even a germ Jason Donavan. Eurgh.
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:40, Reply)

urgh, Jason Donovan!
Oh - but surely the original Jason Donovan was the product of someone leaving a mug under a bed for a few years?
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:44, Reply)

Without Jason Donovan
large numbers of teenage girls would have suffered from chronic water retention due to the absence of gushing fannies.
(cheeses swept kissed a dog and he liked it., Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:47, Reply)

Do you know,
I always wondered why his hair was that peculiar weak brown that only week-old coffee dregs can adopt. Imagine, a whole germ civilisation working in such perfect unity that can appear to be a single being?

I guess he must have been their first attempt.
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:58, Reply)

3 seconds? Dear god woman, you'll never build up an immune system like that
10 seconds is far more like it
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:47, Reply)

I have a fantastic immune system.
I was brought up in the sixties and seventies when eating dirt was positively nurtured in children.

None of this namby pamby wet wipes business nowadays.
( girlinthehole, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:51, Reply)

I like to use wet wipes
after a particularly spicy curry.
(cheeses swept kissed a dog and he liked it., Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:53, Reply)

Have you tried keeping them in the freezer?

(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Mon 1 Jun 2009, 20:55, Reply)