Commando Civility has been on a bit of a break for a while, but we felt compelled to come back when we witnessed this fine gentleman clipping his fingernails on the Subway in New York City. Listen closely, you can hear the “click click” above the sound of the screaming children and the subway noise.
This is great. We wish we had thought of it. It’s a pad of “citations” for rude cell phone users. Fill one out and hand it to the offending cell user.
You can order Cell Citations here: Perpetual Kid.
See this Common Craft blog post about clever Japanese smoking manners signs.
Caroline Roberts did a nice piece in the Bostonist called Manners Police: No Assholery Allowed. I love Bostonist’s Golden Rule: “Don’t be an asshole.”
This card, which simply says “That’s really not the best place to do that,” was inspired by those people who like to hang out at the top or bottom of stairways – especially the steps going into the subway. You’ve seen them: the menu hander-outers, the cell phone talkers, the newspaper sales people. They block the flow of pedestrian traffic and just generally get in the way. Maybe in a desperate act of irony, I should stand right next to the menu guys and start handing out these cards to the subway patrons. I think that I would be the only one getting the joke.
I realized that these cards would also be perfect for those people that do personal things in public (you know, like the public nail clippers), so if you don’t have a “You realize that you’re in public, right?” card on you, you can hand them one of these.
How would you use one of these cards? Leave a comment with your ideas and we’ll send you some – free. How’s that for civil?
