Unsuck DC Metro: Nail Clipping on Metro

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Nail Clipping on Metro

By far, the most commonly observed sociopathic behavior on Metro is nail clipping. Unsuck saw it again yesterday on the Orange Line in the middle of rush hour.

Why do people do this?

If you've never witnessed it, it's a sight to behold.

Usually, there's no attempt to be surreptitious. No eyes darting around the Metro to see who might be watching. No keeping hands low and covering up the clipping sounds with cammo-coughs. No odd contortions. No concealment of the dirty deed at all. The culprits brazenly break out the clippers and hack away, letting the nails fly loose.

One can sort of wrap the mind around Metro pariahs like seathogs, eater-drinkers, creepy dudes, loudmouths--even arm barber (that hair ain't gonna trim itself) but the subway nail clippers ... It's beyond comprehension and way, way too common.

And it's not just DC. Nail clipping seems to be so rampant in NYC that there was a guerrilla
campaign to snuff it out.

What do you think could explain such behavior?

Other items:
Metrobus passenger injuries surpass last year (Examiner)
Funny ads spoof Metro
TBD blogs the escalators
Read the Riders Advisory Council report on Metro (PDF)

Photo: mr_t_in_dc. Original pic here.

Comments (28)

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@elbowglitter · 749 weeks ago

I actually posted one of those this morning: http://plixi.com/p/57453161

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Guest · 749 weeks ago

I haven't seen this, but I think that eating sunflower seeds is almost as bad. I've never actually seen anyone eating them on a train, but I have seen floors covered with shells. I imagine someone had spat them on the floor.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Meredith · 749 weeks ago

Coincidentally, I got on the orange line to Vienna from EFC last night around 9:00 and the floor on an entire half of the car was literally COVERED in sunflower seed shells. You couldn't see the carpet in a lot of places.

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Ever and Anon · 749 weeks ago

IMHO because the folks in our country have decided they are entitled. To what? Everything and anything, and be damned with civility or common consideration of anyone else. These are also the people who'll cut you off in traffic, make right turns from left-hand lanes and/or run you down if you are walking where they want to drive (with or without walk signals and marked areas). There now really exists "the good ole days" simply because once upon a time people were a wee bit more considerate of their fellow American. People have become too selfish to even be embarrassed at their own disgusting actions.

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DrBubb1es · 749 weeks ago

I assume you're using "sociopathic" hyperbolically.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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OUCH · 749 weeks ago

I actually had someone clip their nails behind me, and was hit by a piece of shrapnel in the back of my neck.

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Radner · 749 weeks ago

I think Ever is right about the selfish part. People don't even think about what they're doing.

I've reminded a sunflower seed spitter that a person actually has to clean it up and afterward they seemed to become aware of it and cleaned it up themselves. Perhaps someone should remind the nail clipping people that it is gross and doesn't just disappear on it's own. Some people might actively not care, but others might actually stop doing it.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Ever and Anon · 749 weeks ago

I wish I was near that fellow too, Radner. I'd fake an "OWWW!" and grab my eye. Then look at him as if I was his shocked mother. Just because I could. Then speak one word: "Lawsuit." ;-)

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Aaron · 749 weeks ago

I once said something to a person who was doing it on New York;s Long Island Railroad .. nearly everyone in the car was trying to sleep and we all know that annoying noise clipping does. I personally find it super irritating.

The man argued with me but eventually stopped

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Sizzle · 749 weeks ago

On a daily basis I encounter the most despicable acts of pure rudeness - all on Metro. The other day I literally saw a grown man in a business suit nudge a blind woman out of the way so he could grab an empty seat before she got to it. The reserved handicapped seat, no less.

What is wrong with people?

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Really? · 749 weeks ago

Did you say anything? Anything?

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hhggf · 749 weeks ago

People need to get a clue and trim their nails in the appropriate place--at work!

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Mad on Metro · 749 weeks ago

On a somewhat related note, I see more of the "share your perfume with the entire train" phenomenon than the clippers.

In my experience, it involves a woman on the train who pulls out the perfume, cologne, whatever, and then proceeds to spritz herself LIBERALLY with it. Not only does the rest of the train have to smell her often questionable choice in perfume, many of us were probably just doused it in.

What's more infuriating is that said spritzer normally gets off at the next stop. What.. you couldn't wait 3 minutes to get off and bathe in your perfume on the platform or, even better, once you get outside??

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Really? · 749 weeks ago

They can't wait an do it at work where their clippings will get in others' coffee?

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Honeydew · 749 weeks ago

Isn't it usually men, too? There was a guy in the office I used to work in who regularly cut his nails. In what universe is this acceptable??? Then come to find out that the one day I take my elderly father to work, I see he is guilty of it too! No age limits, apparently.

Men -- this is NOT acceptable!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Sam · 748 weeks ago

Agreed. There was this one guy in my office that used to clip his nails EVERY DAY. I mean, how much could they have possibly grown that it was urgent to clip them at work?

Both sexes are guilty though. Men need to stop doing this and women need to stop putting on makeup/painting their nails on trains or at work too. I'd take the high pitched ping of a nail getting clipped over the smell of nail polish or nail polish remover. Blegh.

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Guest · 749 weeks ago

I am not one of those aforementioned individuals, but I have to ask this question. If I’m pretty sure that I’m one of the few individuals here at work (in the basement of a multi-floored building), am I allowed to cut my nails in the bathroom? I haven’t done it yet and have had to suffer with long fingernails until I get home and cut them then.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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Wow · 749 weeks ago

Do your fingernails grow suddenly and unpredictably during the day? Toenails too? I have never heard of someone suffering such a malady. Normal people are able to clip their nails at home.

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Sam · 748 weeks ago

Can't you clip them before you leave the house in the morning?

But, to answer your question... I'd say that it's much more acceptable to clip your nails in the restroom (and discard them in the trash) than to clip them at your desk.

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phan · 749 weeks ago

The nailclipping seems to be gender-based. I see women filing their nails but not clipping. The last place I worked some guy used to clip his toenails. Just wrong.

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Corresponding Toads · 749 weeks ago

There is a man at my work who cleans his shoes in the bathroom sink every morning. He is my idol.

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hutch · 749 weeks ago

Do most people carry around nail clippers with them? I personally do not and am perplexed why people would even carry clippers with them in the first place?

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Newly Retired · 748 weeks ago

I worked for a high-level government official once who regularly clipped his TOEnails at his desk. Yes, he pulled off those shoes and socks and clipped away. Also sat next to a woman filing AND applying polish to her nails on the train. Just not sure why these people cannot find time to groom themselves at home!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Marie · 748 weeks ago

I cannot understand for the life of me how people can apply nailpolish/makeup on the train with all the screeching halts and bumps and everything. I would probably end up with lipstick on my ear and nailpolish on my wrist.

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blahhh · 748 weeks ago

Why!? i saw this recently in a starbucks and made a scene to the point untill he stooped . what is wrong with people? next time i am breaking out the camera phone.

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Marie · 748 weeks ago

What about people who pick their noses on the train and then flick their boogers. I stopped taking the train for a year after seeing this. DISGUSTING

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MrsKensington · 747 weeks ago

I saw a woman CUTTING HER BOYFRIEND/HUSBAND'S nails the other day on the red line. He was just sitting there calmly, and she was clipping and flicking his nasty nails all over the place.
REALLY, PEOPLE?
I was thisclose to taking their photo. Dang, I wish I'd had the balls.