Fingernail deposit
My daughter is on her way to high school, traveling the Red Line south. Abruptly, the guy sitting next to her whips out a nail clipper and begins to fastidiously clip all 10 nails, filing away as he proceeds. Fingernails are flying for the entire ride into the Loop.
Later that morning, in her Spanish class, my daughter reaches down to pull up her fishnet tights and discovers a castoff nail, nicely embedded in the tights.
Grim.
I've witnessed at least two people clipping their nails on the train. Fortunately, no clippings have ever landed on me.
Posted by: Margaret | February 08, 2005 at 09:24 AM
Yuck. If it was me I would've either moved away or been watching every finger.
Posted by: anon | February 08, 2005 at 11:01 AM
Man, how gross! That always annoy me anyway. People clipping their nails in public - at work, on the train, etc. Argh! Ditto the 2nd commenter, I would have moved away.
Posted by: lynette | February 08, 2005 at 11:17 AM
You let your daughter wear fishnet tights?
Posted by: Matt | February 08, 2005 at 08:22 PM
That noise sets my teeth on edge. I have to fight an impulse to go snatch the clippers right out of their hands.
(At least it wasn't toenails.)
Posted by: gladys | February 09, 2005 at 10:46 AM
This happens on Metra all the time. Because I'm usually deep in sleep when I hear the noise I like to pretend it's just the conductor snapping tickets. There is no fear like that of a passenger sitting on the bottom deck of the train and listening to that noise coming from above.
Posted by: jessicad | February 09, 2005 at 11:49 AM
I stumbled across your nail clipping story while I was writing about my own experience on the subway in NYC. It's slightly comforting to know I'm not the only one trying to avoid flying nail clippings :)
Posted by: Cher | August 19, 2007 at 01:46 PM