This is a subject I feel very passionate about, and I was just faced with this issue last night so I just had to post something today.  To AAAAAALLLLL men who may not know this (because APPARENTLY it is a good number more than I ever realized until now):             

IT IS NOT OKAY TO CLIP YOUR FINGERNAILS IN PUBLIC.  IT’S GROSS. 

Let this humble little blog be a lesson to all of you men who seem to not think it’s a big deal.  Perhaps no woman or socially self-aware man in your life ever explained this to you, you big gross babies.  Just like trimming your nose hairs, nail clipping is something you do IN YOUR OWN BATHROOM…not in the laundromat, not on the subway, not in the office, ONLY YOUR BATHROOM.  Shit, any room in your house, I could give a rat’s ass, just NOT NEAR ME.  Okay, sweeties? 

Last night the public clipping offender was in the laudromat while I quietly folded my towels.  I let it go for a few minutes, but as the clipping went on and on, I walked up to him and asked if he was planning on doing his toenails next.  He didn’t hear me so, speaking up, I asked if he could please step outside.  He politely obliged, at which point I stuffed the rest of my unfolded laundry in my bag and bolted the hell out of there.  :) I hadn’t fully thought my plan through- even after he took the clipping outside, I’d still have to finish folding my laundry with guy-who-thinks-it’s-okay-to-clip-nails-in-the-laundromat. 

I checked with my older brother on this issue to make sure I had a male perspective, that it wasn’t something on the male-female divide like public crotch adjustment, or often nose-picking, both things men do in public WAY more often than women.  Crotch adjustment I can’t judge because I don’t have that equipment dangling down there all the time, so you boys can have that one.  Nose picking one can at least look away and try to ignore (even though catching someone knuckle-deep, digging for a crusty one is kinda like a train wreck- you just can’t turn away), but with nail clipping it’s the SOUND that is so invasive.  There’s no escaping!   My brother confirmed that nail clipping is not an appropriate public activity.  He ventured a guess that perhaps some men just have an inability to see things from the other person’s side.  Or perhaps no one ever told them it was not polite.  Well, if the latter is the case, then I hope my asking the laudromat clipper to go outside was a change in his world forever.  Maybe I was the first person ever in his life to step up and tell him NO- THAT IS GROSS- GET AWAY FROM ME (although from the looks of him, probably not).  Ladies and gentlemen, take a cue, and say no to public nail clipping.   If we don’t, who will?  Make a difference in your community.   Or the public nail clippers will have children and teach them to clip their nails in public, and they’ll have public nail clipping children, and soon we’ll be surrounded by people clipping their nails at the library, at the post office, on the bus and at the dinner table!