Followups for the Art of Barbering. Any other comments are welcome:
From Rich:
Absolutely true! In San Diego (I believe America's 6th largest city), the barber shops are remarkably similar to South Bend, or anywhere else I've been. (Ask Jason about Vitos... the cops... etc.)There's just something about going to a place where they do your side burns and the back of your neck with host shaving cream and a straight edged razor. (To me, there's something particularly Arun-esque about this line of conversation.)
From Arun:
Interesting comments, I hadn't really thought about it, but thinking back it must be quite interesting. I imagine the barber shops/beauty salons of Las Vegas Hotels must be especially interesting. I got my hair cut at one and in the short time I was there there were 3 wedding parties passing through in one stage or another.
This raises an interesting point -- are there [at least] two fundamental kinds of barbers? Those who have a handle on the local community and those whose community is mainly composed of transients (e.g., tourists)? And of the second type (I have to admit, I don't think that I've met any of those type):
- Why did they get into barbering? The same reasons?
- What do they yield from the Art of Barbering? It certainly isn't a feel for the local community -- there isn't one. What do they get a feel for? What are the conversations in their shops like?
And in this case, I suppose the Art of Barbering can be abstracted to a higher level, such as those who primarily interact with tourists (but then again, Vegas is truly unique!). For example, what are the differences between clientele of the T.G.I. Friday's in South Bend vs. the clientele of the T.G.I. Friday's in Vegas?
Again, this has no point. Just idle wonderings of someone waiting for X latency between squyres.com and nd.edu...