What the What?!

I saw a Q-Tip on a Metro platform this morning. A Q-Tip itself is not an odd object, but what is it doing on a metro platform? Was someone really removing the wax from their ear canal while waiting for the train and then decided just to discard the soiled cotton swab right then and there? Or could there be a more innocent explanation? Maybe the Q-Tip just fell out of someone’s bag as they reached in to get a pen. But what is a loose Q-Tip doing in someone’s bag? I mean the point of a Q-Tip is that they are supposed to be clean, if not somewhat sterile. A Q-Tip isn’t really a fun or appropriate toy for a child, so it’s not like it was dropped by an excited (or bored) little imp. Possibly a hip fashionita was putting the finishing touches on her make-up while waiting for the train and the rush of wind as the train went by blew said Q-Tip out of her hand. But who really gets that in depth with their make-up in public? None of these hypotheses seem plausible to me, which at the sight of a Q-Tip a Metro platform this morning had me saying, “What the what?!”