One time several years ago, I recall sitting in the dugout during a softball game next to some guy who played for us for a game as a fill-in. He was one of those guys who has a pot belly, softball pants, batting gloves, eye black underneath his eyes and his own $800 bat that he takes with him to the park from Thursday evening through the weekend. You know, the type who plays on 3 teams and the hangs around at the park hoping someone might use his recreational mercenary skills?

Anyway, I looked over at him while he was watching the game and saw his profile, silhouetted by the sun. The outside of his nose had stiff quarter inch long hairs standing straight up all over it. It almost looked like one of those furry dandelions you see on an untreated lawn. I couldn’t look away. “Was he aware of this?”, “How could he not be?”, “Didn’t he have any loved ones who might suggest he pluck them?”, “Do his friends tease him about it?”, “Do they itch?”, “Are they firmly or loosely attached to his nose?”, “How could that possibly not bother him?” All were questions I wanted to ask as I gazed at his unusually fuzzy nose.

I tell you all of this as a backdrop and probable reason that I spent 45 minutes on the couch in my hotel room last night trying to pluck 2 similar hairs from the outside of my nose with my fingernails. It’s the small details that count with personal grooming standards.