From: An Anonymous Legal Professional [Email him]

I used to work in the Supreme Court of New York County at 60 Centre Street. The building's back door opens into Chinatown, and within a two-minute walk you pass by local stores with signs displayed in Chinese characters. Anything unusual about them? They have tables outside the store containing large, water-filled open tanks within which swim fish, frogs, turtles, lobsters, shrimp, crabs, eels, and any marine life considered toothsome by the locals. From time to time, a store employee reaches his bare hand into a tank, grabs an animal, and carries it to the store's interior.

What did he touch just before this, without washing his hands? No one knows or asks, certainly not the NYC Police Department's 9th Precinct, where laissez-faire has been the policy for over 100 years.

Might there be things which are not displayed for various reasons (illegal, putrescent, dangerous) but whose bodily fluids may be present throughout the store? Does water from the tanks splash over onto the sidewalk, and contaminate the shoes of passersby?

What do you think?

See a previous letter from the same reader.