What is the deal with growing a single fingernail really long, while all the rest stay neatly trimmed? A guy I work with does this to his right little finger and it creeps me out for some reason. maybe I’m worried he’ll stab me with it…
I always use mine for sniffin’ cocaine.
– Snowbird Uke…“Have a whiff on me.”
I use mine for pickin the dried cocaine lumps from my nose.
If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun.
-Benjamin Franklin
An artist pal of mine uses his to dab extra oils off his canvas and get a clear edge.
Oh, yeah, and the cocaine thing too.
I think it’s a sign of affluence in Chinese culture. That is, you don’t do menial labor, so you are able to grow long fingernails.
One Chinese draftsman I knew grew his like that. He used it to scrape small ink spots off of his mylar work instead of using a bulk eraser. Drove me nuts; it reminded me of fingernails on chalkboard. 
The Canadians. They walk among us. William Shatner. Michael J. Fox. Monty Hall. Mike Meyers. Alex Trebek. All of them Canadians. All of them here.
Perchance did he also have a spoon on a gold chain around his neck?
Great for ransacking the nostrils, I suppose…
VB
TANSTAAFL!
A friend of mine was at a comic convention once and he saw a guy who let his index finger and middle finger of his right hand grow out. It was so he could flip through the boxes of comics faster.
Thanks for posting that, Twin. I’m no longer worried about my SDMB addiction.
What do I believe in? Not much that isn’t explained by logic and scientific experiment. And, you better believe, I want to see the logic and the laboratory equipment. -P.J. O’Rourke-
Urk. I suppose, since I let my pinkie nails grow long, I’ll be expected to answer this.
Sigh. Well, the ‘hunt for nose goblins’ answer ain’t that far off, though it isn’t the main reason. The main reason is that having a small, long, sharp fingernail can come in damned handy at times, such as when opening cellophane packages, or many other situations when I could use a small knife. I suppose I could just carry a small knife, but that would be useful and natural, and wouldn’t get me the weird and worried stares from people who think a) I’m a cocaine user or b) I’m going to stab them.
JMCJ
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But why not just grow all of your nails long, John? Long nails look sexy on men, I think.
I wear my nails longer on my right hand for guitar playing.
Not real long, though – just past the tops of the fingers.
Who is it that’s a classical guitarist on this board?
My Child Is An Honour Student At Hogwarts
Hey, no fair! Real questions don’t belong in MPSIMS. Mundane & pointless R us, remember?
Having said that, the British Museum has two antique pinkie fingernail guards from China - said it was done to show a person didn’t have to work. (I saw them when I was there)
…in a state so nonintuitive it can only be called weird…
Cess- If I just grow all of my fingernails long, then:
I can’t give my girlfriend a backrub; the slightest brush of a fingernail tickles her into spasms of limb flailing (and as she’s stronger than I, actually trying to tickle her end up with me in the Satan position and her holding the strap-on, metaphorically at least).
Co-workers stop looking at me with fear and suspicion (which I enjoy), but rather with disgust for my lack of grooming (which I do not enjoy).
Invariably, I will rip a nail off on something. I do this regularly with my pinkie nails, and it hurts like hell; but when I let all of my nails grow out, I run five times the risk of mind-bending pain.
JMCJ
This could be YOUR sig line! For just five cents a post, JMCJ Enterprises will place YOUR sig line at the bottom of each message!
wish I was… its always been a fantasy of mine, once bought a guitar and found out i didnt have the ability or the patience. sigh
“Boy, wouldja get a load of the cloaca on that one”? -Cecil Adams, october 8 1999
Long pinkie nail?! Maybe useful when you run out of Q-Tips… Just ‘spoon’ the wax and crud out!
All of my fingernails are longer than the norm. They do come in very handy for opening new cds, opening boxes with tape, opening pull tabs on beer cans, removing that odd hunk of flesh off bones (chicken that is) and in a pinch can function as a flathead screwdriver.
My sixth grade teacher let the nail on one of his pinkie fingers grow long. He told us it was to slit our throats if necessary. Of course, he also told us that if we didn’t have a pen we could tattoo the answers on our forearm and turn in the arm.
(He remains my all-time favorite teacher.)
Have any of you folks noticed any of your nails growing faster then the others? I find my ring finger nails on both hands grow faster than the rest of my nails…
She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
JC –
Oh. Carl used to have really long fingernails and he’d scratch my back or tickle me like you said. I like it. 
Also, having long fingernails does not mean that you are not well-groomed. As long as you keep them clean and filed, anyway.
BMU –
My pinkie nails grow the fastest, then my ring-finger & thumb are tied for second. Middle and pointer fingers grow the slowest, but I think it’s because I use those two fingers the most when typing.
The Power Of Christ: 2000 years and He hasn’t come yet!