Fingernails loom large in WaPo's report "Sydney McLaughlin sets world record in 400-meter hurdles at U.S. Olympic trials."
Pristine-white — has that descriptor ever appeared in the news before?
Anyway, here's what matters!
Sydney McLaughlin = 🐐pic.twitter.com/wsw2el42xZ
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) June 28, 2021
And yet, I don't have a tag for running, and I'm not going to create one, but I do have a tag "fingernails," and I'm delighted to get to use it again.
I hadn't used it since July 2018, when somebody had "tapered nails painted bright sapling-green." There's been newsworthy fingernail biting. And Viking beliefs about cutting one's nails.
And my all-time favorite: "'Record nails broken in car crash.'... Not the worst car accident injury, though possibly the worst fingernail-breaking injury.... I wish somebody would bring her the world's largest blackboard."
Posts
7 comments:
Gilbert Pinfold writes:
"She’s from my hometown of Dunellen, NJ. One square mile in size, former residence of William Marsh Rice whose money founded Rice University (and was murdered by his butler). Smallest public high school in the state, it’s a town no one has really heard of until now."
Lloyd writes:
I sometimes admire young women who work a cash, keyboard or what not with elaborate nails--great dexterity. But why do female track stars go in for this?
He links to "Sha’Carri Richardson’s Nails Have Major Flo-Jo Vibes/Where trackstar meets style icon":
"When it comes to nails, Sha’Carri keeps things long and luxurious. Saturday’s set of choice was victory-inspired featuring a color gradient and gold star embellishments and rhinestones. Part of her charismatic flair, Sha’Carri’s penchant for long nails means she’s often compared to legendary sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, commonly known as Flo-Jo. She always served looks on the track and, much like Sha’Carri Richardson, loved her long acrylics. “Flo-Jo came to the track and knew she was going to dominate,” Sha’Carri told the Associated Press on June 17. “The way she did that was graceful. I always liked that. If the amazing Flo-Jo had long nails, there was no excuse why I couldn’t have long nails,” she added."
Nancy writes:
"I clicked on the link about sapling green fingernails and found this excellent update, which earlier readers may have missed. (The link was to an article in the NT Times about women sending selfies of their genitalia to men.)"
Here's the NYT Editors’ Note: July 11, 2018:
"An earlier version of this article included an anecdote about a married man who received an intimate selfie from a woman who was not his wife; the article also included comments from others about the selfie. Editors were not aware until after publication that the married man was the writer's husband. If editors had realized the connection, the incident would not have been included, or would have been described differently. That material has now been removed from the article."
Ha ha.
David Begley notes, "She attended Union Catholic high school; not the public high school."
(Not that Gilbert Pinfold assumed she did.)
Temujin writes:
"Nails, Schmails. She's a phenomenal athlete. I watched that race 3 times and my jaw was down all three times. All of them are such outstanding athletes, but Sydney blew away the world record. Nails? There are a lot of descriptors that 'Journalist' could have used for Sydney. Talking about her pristine white nails...well...I'm sure there was some other message trying to be made there, but it was missed on me. A world record in the 400m hurdles is all that needed to be said."
Birches writes:
I was expecting the painted nails to pop more from the description when I watched the video. I was underwhelmed. Perhaps her fingernails warrant attention to hearken back to FloJo.
I will note that women track stars often feminize themselves a lot more than other female sports stars. It's not just nails, but earrings and other accessories. I'm not sure if it's because of FloJo or if they're trying to signal the collective heterosexuality of the sport. It's an interesting juxtaposition with something like the WNBA.
Gilbert Pinfold comes back to say:
"I knew she went to Union Catholic—as I said, Dunellen is a small high school, and any resident with a modicum of athletic talent will go to any of a number of surrounding area Catholic schools to get more visibility. Apparently, her father is a track coach, so he would know the best path to an athletic scholarship. To show how small the Dunellen HS is, I played football (offense AND defense), and the sousaphone at halftime in my football uniform."
Post a Comment