Question: Do you really have to cut your fingernails on the bus? Are you really that strapped for time at home that you grab your nail clipper and say to yourself, “Well, I can always finish clipping my nails on the bus”? I know the bus or train can be boring, and one of the benefits of public transportation is that you don’t have to concentrate on driving, so you can read the paper or a book, listen to music on headphones, eat your Popeye’s and drink your coffee, oh, and/or cut your nails. Don’t you think some people might be grossed out by that? Thankfully, I’ve never seen anyone cut their toenails on Muni, but I don’t doubt I will someday. First the fingernails, then the toes, what’s next? Don’t you see? It’s only a matter of time before someone brings a bucket of water and some shampoo and washes their hair just so they can use their Muni time “productively.” Fingernail clippings have a tendency to shoot in all directions, too. Don’t you know that? I don’t know, it just bugs me. Clip your nails at home, or go to a nail salon.
Rob Nagle is a designer and copy editor at the San Francisco Examiner. He clips his nails at home, in his bathroom, over a waist basket, in private.
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BARF.
Public cutting of nails, in any type of public venue, is unacceptable.
But what would you say is worse: cutting your nails on the bus, eating on the bus, or having a phone conversation on the bus? All are egregious offenses, in my opinion, but I’m not sure which is the evilest.
Discuss.
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As a copy editor myself I’m a bit saddened by the typo in your tagline, comrade.
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Doh! Sadness, yes, what is a waist basket? Meant waste basket. Well, I never said I was a good copy editor. Thanks for catching it, mirnanda.
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It happens to the best of us.
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Oh, and Tara, although, I really don’t like people eating on the bus, it’s still better than clipping the nails. Cell phone use, eh, don’t really bother me. I’ll probably use my phone on public from time to time.
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For me it’s clipping the nails, hands-down. Sunflower-seed shells are simply annoying and may startle you as you’re walking toward the back of the bus (assuming you follow this most basic of transit-riding rules). Nails are a borderline health hazard. And utterly and totally disgusting.
As Rob pointed out: Do that shit at home!
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This reminds me of the times I had students pluck their eyebrows in class or paint their nails, or some other such thing. I would always ask them if it would be alright if the next day I shaved my legs in class. Ewwww, no. Well, then don’t do…. Perhaps that should be your comment to the nail clipper, which I am assuming is a man. A woman would be filing her nails.
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