Busy fingers

People check their smart phones every 12 minutes, we report today. This is not about making phone calls, or even establishing whether anyone loves us. To a large extent it is about having an occupation for one’s fingers. People on buses are expert at digit-pacification, playing Candy Crush or scrolling down Twitter timelines. It is an alternative to smoking, maybe, since the once blameless pastime is now officially persecuted. But more productive manual occupations are needed. Knitting is ideal, given an outlet for the finished goods. But perhaps dexterity has never been more developed than by Hebridean herring girls, who could gut 30 fish a minute for hours on end. It is an accomplishment worth emulating, even if dealing with a barrel of herrings on public transport might prove even less popular than using mobiles.