While waiting for the bus on Saturday (one of my least favourite things to do) I was briefly amused by a moment of intrigue. Or, maybe it was confusion. But regardless of what I was struck with, here’s what happened. A guy who was also waiting for a bus was passing the time by clipping his finger nails. Now I’ll admit, he was using his time more productively than me. I was just standing there staring blankly into the street and thinking about how fantastic my greasy breakfast was going to be. But I couldn’t help but wonder if it was really the right place to give yourself a manicure. And I’m not talking about just whipping out the clippers to get rid of a pesky hang nail. This was a full-blown, premeditated, nail-by-nail trimming session. Was his day really so busy that he had to multi-task to this extent? He then went on to use the scary hook-shaped tool to dig under his freshly cut nails, and continued to do so until my bus came. What happened after that I will never know. Did he trim his nose hair? Clean his ears? Floss his teeth? Maybe this whole process really isn’t as strange as I think it is. Upon further investigation I was told NBA players have been known to do some clipping when they’re sitting on the bench. But as far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t justify it.
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2006.