I have zero social understanding of what is normal behavior, and I routinely embarrass my girlfriend with my odd eccentricities. Recently I was walking to the square with her while I clipped my fingernails and walking on the sidewalk at the same time. She was mortified. “Why are you clipping your nails outside?!?!” I responded by telling her, “Because they’re long, what?”
Is it not right to do that? Did I break an unwritten law of courteously walking in public?
However, just like you, I just don’t see what the problem is. :smack:
It makes complete sense to do things like this. Does it go against social code? Yes.
Is your GF wrong? Yup.
Were you raised by wolves? If course it’s bad form to tend to your personal toilette on the street. Your nails were long before you left the house. Don’t be a lout.
Looks like this is going to be a replay of the previous thread but I think you should groom yourself before you leave the house. I don’t want to see it. In general, I think we’ve lost a barrier between in public behavior and at home behavior that I would like to see re-established (it won’t happen, I know that).
Also, it is not as if your nails grow at such an alarming rate that you can’t wait until you get home to do it. The nails were long on you walk, they’ll still be there when you get home.
So even if you find a really good, juicy louse on your mate, you shouldn’t pluck it and eat it while you’re waling down the street? Even if it’s right out there, just asking for it?
I think that if you’re somewhere where people know you (work, school, church) or someplace where being sanitary is a concern (hospital, restaurants, grocery store), then no, it’s not appropriate. If you’re walking down the street in a big city, where you will not likely see any of the people you encounter again, then it really isn’t a big deal. If you have difficulty discerning the difference, then err to the side of caution, please.
Thanks for the link in post #2, I think I can get the identical input from it. It is safe to let this thread sink!
What about eyebrow plucking?
When I trim my nails indoors, there’s always a piece that goes astray and gets caught in the carpet. If I go outside to trim, the ants carry away the trimmings. 
I wasn’t raised by wolves; we didn’t live in a wolfy neighborhood. I was raised by Presbyterians.
I think it would be more appropriate and polite to bite the nails off rather than clip them. If you bite, you can keep your eyes up and avoid bumping into people. However, it is generally frowned upon to spit the clippings at passersby, excepting small children when their parents aren’t looking.
Do you clip your toenails while walking too? Because that would be kind of cool and agile.
Ew. Or, instead of ants, maybe it goes astray and hits a stranger walking next to you, behind you, etc.
I’m with the “clip your nails at home” camp. Or find a restroom in which to groom yourself.
Yeah, and tell your GF to be happy you did not floss your teeth after attending to your nails.
She’s wrong to expect him to behave in a way that’s socially acceptable? And why does it make “perfect sense” to clip one’s nails as one is walking down the street, when one presumably has a perfectly functional private residence in which to do these things?
I will never understand people who think that breaking the social code makes them special or badass. It doesn’t. It just makes them rude.
I know sweets said he had the info he needed, but I just wanted to point out that clipping his fingernails was not necessarily rude in itself, but it was rude to the lady he was with. Like she required so little of his attention, he would just work in a quick manicure while they strolled along. Anyway, I don’t see how someone could clip his nails and still look where he was going.
The thing about clipping your nails in public is that, while many folks’ll just think, “Oh, that’s kinda gross,” but then forget about, others will writhe in revulsion, faint, and have to be revived with smelling salts*. In other words, it’s definitely rude to do it, but beyond that, many people have an aversion to nail parings.
Personally, I am far, far less grossed out by nail parings than I am by loud chewers and lip smackers, but that’s just me.
*(Does anybody use smelling salts any more??)
Thanks for the gentle scolding. I really do admit to having little social tact, but hopefully a little of this is wearing away in the fight to eliminate ignornace.
It won’t happen again.
Thread die.
Maybe they don’t think they are special or a badass. Maybe they think that it’s foolish to live one’s life by someone else’s nonsense rules. There have been many respected thinkers in American culture and literature that would agree. Ralph Waldo Emerson is an example.
Who decided that clipping a nail is rude but stroking your beard is not?