Mind Your MBTA Manners: A Thing That Should Be Obvious, But Apparently Is Not

You'd think that winter, with its mittens and gloves, would save us from this wretched phenomenon, but sadly that has not been the case thus far. We hope you haven't experienced it, but those of you who have know exactly what we're talking about. The snip... snip... snip... noises. The feeling of revulsion. The No... it can't be. The attempt to avoid looking. The turning up of your iPod. The persistence of the snips, which somehow surmount even the iPod's maximum volume. The surrender to curiosity. The discreet half-turn in your seat. The sighting that confirms it. Yes... it is... fingernail clipping action on the MBTA! Shudder.

Please keep your gloves on this winter, folks. No one wants to hear your clipping process, see your fingernail clippings on the seat, or—worst of all—have a fingernail clipping land in their eye. Blinding people with keratin is not something that one should aspire to. If you have nail-clipping needs, take care of them in private, not in a place where the byproducts—not to mention the goddamn noise—of your activity affects others. If you have a heinous hangnail, you probably should've taken care of it before boarding the train, and you can surely wait a few minutes longer before fixing it.

One thing that we haven't yet seen this winter (thankfully), but did have the, er, "pleasure" of witnessing within our first month of arriving in Boston: someone clipping her toenails on the T. Welcome to the Hub of the Universe? The Hub of the Grossiverse is more like it. Shoes, T, required. Gloves, winter, recommended. Clipping, in public, never.

Thanks to Cody for the suggestion. Got a T etiquette tip? Send it in. Charlie, armed with a clippers, prepares to cut up the Charlie cards of those who offend the clipping ban.