Gross public behavior

by Jennifer Fields (Subscribe to Jennifer Fields's posts)
Jul 1st 2008 6:08PM

I'm horrified every time I think about the man who clipped his nails for what seemed like forever on an Amtrak train ride I recently took. What makes people think leaving behind shards of nails in a train seat is okay? I've seen people do this on subway cars and even in a lunch room! And that's certainly not the worst (or grossest) behavior I've witnessed. At AOL Health, we're putting together a story on gross public behavior and I'd love to hear from you. Tell me about the grossest things you've witnessed people doing in public. From puking to spitting, we want to know your true gross-out tales.

Comments (245)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 13)

SuzyQ 7-02-2008 @ 7:28AM

I have caught one of my superiors at work digging their car key into their ear - for a long time - even when I walked in - they kept doing it. Ew!

marcie0305 7-01-2008 @ 10:13PM

When I was dating (back in the day) there was a guy who I knew wanted to ask me out, and I probably would have until I saw him outside cutting the grass and he "blew his nose" by putting one finger over one nostril and projectile-shot a big piece of snot halfway across the yard. I was so grossed out the thought of dating him just went out the window.

I know, sounds a little snotty (har har) but there are some things in the category of *personal* hygeine that should be just that - personal. I also hate it when I hear nail clippers clipping away at the office - do that stuff at home! (I always close my door or go the bathroom when I need to blow my nose.)

Fun topic!

~Marcie
http://feedingblackmail.blogspot.com

debra martin 7-02-2008 @ 7:00AM

People who lick their fingers to separate checks or money make me want to gag, one woman in particular, used her thumb, stuck out her tongue farther that I thought possible, placed it far to the back and swiped it....honestly, I made an obvious effort to gingerly pinch a corner of her check when retrieving. Do people not think at all of others? Who in the world wants to pick up a crumpled kleenex? Nobody wants to hop over the thick mucous pile of spit in front of a door and if you took your children to the park would you want to explain a used condom in the parking lot? Many people are just pigs.

nononsense 7-02-2008 @ 11:23AM

At my old office building someone used to take newspapers into the bathroom stall and read them while he was going number two. He did not wash his hands. He would then return them to the communal table.

Vishaal 7-02-2008 @ 11:45AM

Spitting. Making sounds while eating (chewing with mouth open). Scratching the crotch area. When men sweaty men wear tank tops and raise their arms (I don't want to inhale your armpit hair, thankyouverymuch). Eating and spitting tobacco. PLAYING WITH BELLY BUTTON...WHY would you play with you belly button? Or your belly button ring? EW...and when guys have their hands up their shirt all the time...I mean, WHAT are you doing??????????

Vishaal 7-02-2008 @ 11:45AM

SoxFan 7-02-2008 @ 10:05PM

My family and I went to an Orioles game in Baltimore. We parked in a lot near the stadium and as we were pulling into a parking spot, we saw that there were four people ahead of us standing near some parked cars. One guy was kneeling on the ground and I was looking at him wondering what he was doing. It took me a moment to realize that he was actually urinating out in the open onto an unoccupied spot! Yes, I saw EVERYTHING! UGH! He did appologize to me, but I was horrified that my 12 year old daughter had seen it as well!

Rk 7-20-2008 @ 4:57AM

well your a sox fan, A white Sox fan i would hope, but even a Boston red sox fan, you should have done what most of the Chi sox fans i know, they guy would have gotten a golden shower, of ice cold miller Lite. what a crazy person.

Jim 7-02-2008 @ 11:40PM

I remember 2 guys eating dinner. One had ordered mushrooms as an appetizer. Without asking the fellow across the table kept taking a mushroom, the fellow with the mushrooms started to get annoyed. Without saying a word, like "hey, get your own" he spit into the mushrooms making sure that guy saw it. The fellow didn't bother helping himself to any more mushrooms. The fellow proceeded to finish his entree. !!!! Not sure that was gross or really creative, maybe both.

JIM 7-02-2008 @ 11:37PM

I had a father-in-law who would eat anything. He grew up during the depression is probably the reason. He'd go into the refrigerator take something out, if it were bad like with little green/black fuzz circles on it, he'd just scrape the top off & eat it. I often wonder why he use to buy so much toilet paper!!!!!!!!

Grossed out 7-02-2008 @ 11:54PM

My husband and I went to a concert a few years ago. The guy behind us was extremely drunk. Awhile into it, I felt something splashing my legs and, when I turned around, he was peeing right behind me. As it turns out he was a teacher too!

Brina 7-03-2008 @ 1:49AM

Ok, So I'm a female from NYC and we (us New Yorkers) see plenty of disgusting stuff all of the time. Well, a few years back I went out to a club. The girls there were strangely gorgeous, I couldn't find one mediocre girl there. I always hated using public restrooms because of squatting leading to urine all over the stalls. However, this one place, full of gorgeous girls, had a bathroom jam packed with evidentally bulemic pukers! (Mind you, I'd rather had seen urine all over the place instead). I then realized why I was the only one with an ass in the whole place and laughed my fat behind all the way home! Gross, but it figures!

I was also at Woodstock '99 -the one that went bad. Not enough food, water, shade, or port-o-pottys! On the first night I was in line for an hour for one of them (a toilet).The person ahead of me went in, came out, I opened the door, and a plop of poop fell from the ceiling. The gross thing? People were actually using it!!! I ran away and the girl behind me went right in - no sweat! I pee'd two times in 3 days on grass, and I had NO CHOICE - I'm not that kind of person. Ugh!

PS - New York currently has a small epidemic of people carrying bed bugs home from gross commuters on subways! Anything and everything happens here!

TMarie 7-03-2008 @ 1:27PM

Tongue, lip, and eyebrow piercings gross me out. So distracting. I'm a 'to each his own kind of person'; I do have two holes in each ear, but I find myself averting my eyes at those other types of peircings.

And then the other day, I pulled up to a light and saw the guy next to me remove his upper plate, lick it clean, and then put it back in. I should have turned away to keep from being nauseated by the spectacle, but it was like they say about train wrecks....

Andrea 7-03-2008 @ 11:28AM

While I have certainly seen grosser things (I'm in the medical profession), I'm going to point out this one because it is common:
Blowing your nose in public. I don't care if you use a throw away Kleenex or a hankerchief that is then stuffed back in your pocket, it is GROSS. I don't need to hear the snot in your nose rumbling around, it makes me gag. When you feel the need to do that, GO TO THE BATHROOM- the designated place for gross/personal things.
And while we're on the subject, how about sneezing loudly? You can restrain your sneezes, and people should do this in public. A lot of the time people don't even cover their face appropriately and you can feel the spray if you are close. Hold that grossness in.

Tammie 7-30-2008 @ 10:35AM

Ok I agree about blowing nose in public, but come on, I am a nurse and holding in or holding back a sneeze is ridiculous. As long as you sneeze into a tissue and not all over someone, what is the big deal? I could understand more if you complained about flatulence in public, yeah maybe squeeze that one back!.

ehuntut602 7-03-2008 @ 5:12PM

I went to highschool with a girl who would pick at her zits until they were scabs, ad she would sit in class and pck her scabs...and SOMTHING out of her scalp, and proceed to eat them.

Deb Carpente 7-20-2008 @ 6:04PM

Reminds me of elementary school. Two kids. One was shunned because he had green teeth, not yellow, not gray, green.
Another kid had a retainer and he would spread paste on it when the teacher wasn't looking, let it dry, peelit off,and delicately eat it.
Then I went tohigh school and had an English teacher, a man, who ate chalk. Whole pieces.

rhiannon 7-03-2008 @ 6:00PM

i think this one takes the cake:

when i was living in italy i was in my late teens, two of my friends and i were walking back from town and saw a guy sitting on his parked moped beside the road. we heard that his moped was still running and he was sort of hunched over...as we got closer we realized he was...how sall i put this gently...pleasuring himself. and when he saw that we saw him, he climaxed. we saw everything. then we screamed and ran and laughed. eewwww.

Ruby 7-22-2008 @ 12:36AM

my sister lived there for four years you aint seen nothing yet they pee right out in the open when ever they want
no mater who is around they dont care..and the people over there call us DIRTY Americans.......

Bil 7-06-2008 @ 4:31PM

I work as a Flight Attendant and the girl I was working with noticed a very handsome man sitting in the first row.
During the flight she passed by and noticed that he took off his shoes. A little while later he took off his socks. Third time she went by Prince Charming had his foot IN his mouth and was biting his TOENAILS!! Thanks for flying with us! Please come again.