# Look at the bottom of your shoe.  Look at your nails.   Look up at the sky.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 17, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989 "2007-08-17T20:20:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/61 "2015-01-01T05:21:01Z")

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Who looks at their nails? Is that a girl thing?

In 1967 my Mom explained to me that it was easier to take my top off with the crossed-arm thing, and my Dad told us that I should **not** do that because it was a girl thing. I continued taking my shirt off by

– reaching over the top, grabbing the back of my shirt about half way down, bunching it up and pulling it over my head–

until I got too old, fat, and stiff to do that. Now I normally start by pulling the collar over my head.

Also, _you_ look at the sky. I’ll sit here with my back to the wall, and a good view of the exits, while you tell me what you see.

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**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/62 "2015-01-01T17:46:13Z")

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[What a timely resurrection for this zombie.](http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2015/01/01)

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**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/63 "2015-01-01T19:08:16Z")

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In my elementary school (was it a grammar school, I don’t remember) both 5th grade teachers taught the fingernail and shoe methods as the correct way for a man to check these things. At recess it was decided that “fags” did it wrong and that was how to tell if one was a fag. I had no idea was a fag was other than nail and shoe checking, but I could tell it was despised.

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