Unusual Bookmarks

There's a letter in today's Dear Abby column from someone who works in a library and is concerned about people using their mail as bookmarks. The writer points out that doing this may result in the person checking the book out next having access to a stranger's name and address and perhaps quite a bit more if the piece of mail is something like a bill or a bank statement.

I've never found a piece of mail in a library book but I've found grocery lists, doctor appointment reminders, a dried flower, photographs, candy wrappers, unused postcards, playing cards, a lottery scratch off ticket (scratched off, not a winner),parking tickets, facial tissue (unused), business cards, a feather, greeting cards, a shoelace, bobby pins, a toothpick, used concert tickets, and, once, a holy card.

This reminds me of a bulletin board in a library from my childhood. There was a list of ten things not to do with library books. I only remember two. The first one was to never read a library book in the bath tub. I remember this one because I'd never thought of doing this but it sounded so tempting! The second one was stranger. It was an admonition to never, never use a piece of bacon as a bookmark. The first thought that came into my head was "cooked or raw" but I suppose it doesn't matter. This led me to two other questions: had this been included on the list because someone had actually done this and under what circumstances would a person use a piece of bacon as a bookmark?

NOTE And after doing a search I found this: The Legend of the Bacon Bookmark .