Well, the guy wasn't a customer. I vote for "Great moments in implicature."
(Ogged: Is first comment too soon to go nuclear on the geekery?)
As I was composing this post in my head on the drive home, I thought, "If I call it customer service, w-lfs-n will say that the guy wasn't technically a customer." So at least you surprised me.
It's not that I can't imagine a haircut cheaper than $18, but the guy was hoping for something enough cheaper than $18 that the price difference mattered to him? At that point, what is he doing in a barber shop rather than shaving his head with a disposable razor by feel?
The gentleman was considering becoming a customer of that barber shop before he decided it was too expensive, and it was on the basis of the relationship formed in the liminal space between customer and perfect stranger that the barber gave him the misleading advice.
The whole event took place within a conceptual space that could only be labelled "customer service," even if it does not appear to be customer service properly so called. Thus, I think that a w-lfs-nian critique of this post would be misguided at best.
I personally have not paid for a haircut in over five years. I have a friend who is able to give haircuts, using scissors and everything, and I just go over to her place whenever my hair is getting too long.
Once I also got a haircut from the woman I was dating at the time, who also cuts her own hair and eats a lot of soy products and uses organic deodorant. It turned out great. Before that, I went for the buzz cut, administered by whatever guy happened to be hanging around in the dorm at the time.
In short, I would never even begin to imagine thinking about paying $18 for a haircut.
Even as someone who cuts his own hair when possible, I recognize that $18 is a cheap haircut. And, like LB says, given that haircuts can cost hundreds of dollars and that, on that scale, 18 is already pretty close to zero, what could the guy have been expecting that made him say "Wow" to 18?
Maybe he assumes that any place that cuts hair for less than $30 is teh suck, and the barber was unwittingly being helpful by directing him to a snootier joint. (Ogged probably has information that disconfirms this hypothesis.)
There are obviously snootier joints (eg, no barber's pole outside) within about 50 yards on either side; so it's not likely that he was using the barber.
And I thought my $30 haircuts in G'ville were a bargain, but $18 in Oggedville is pretty amazing.
Ogged, I definitely choose you to go on a date with over that cheapskate guy with unruly hair (because I'm assuming he's still holding out for a better deal, which he may not find).
Re: 7 -- I never thought to ask my hairstylist if she eats soy products and uses organic deodorant. Do you think these factors have an impact on the quality of the cut?
My stylist once told me that her clit is pierced, but I didn't think it affected the cut one way or another.
Her very natural and earthy lifestyle -- why, I believe that her ovulation had even become syncronized with the phases of the moon! -- helped to provide me with a haircut that didn't require any "product" to maintain.
Back in my PFR days, I got my first mohawk from a girl that I'd met a mere hour before. She had the most toned legs I think I'd ever seen, in the tightest of jeans . Having a strange hot chick give you a haircut while straddling your legs and sitting in your lap: that's the best kind of free haircut.
OK. That was just bragging. Was it as fun for you as it was for me?
That being said, I have paid $50 for a cut. I've found a new place that's not as good that I go to now for $25. I maintain that I need an expensive haircut to do everything possible to disguise my receding hairline and the thinning on top.
$18 seems expensive to me. But, then again, I make my wife cut my hair, since I'm cheap and also can't stand to have strangers touch me.
$18 strikes me as fairly normal, the place I tend to go to these days ends up at $18 with tip.
Seven bucks.
Five minutes.
Hobson's choice on the barber.
The Pentagon barbershop on the concourse.
Thus, I think that a w-lfs-nian critique of this post would be misguided at best.
I didn't actually make that critique, nor, I think, was I likely to have. It didn't occur to me as I was reading the post, anyway, and I think Kotsko's dead on. So there, Kotsko.
There's a barbershop in Hyde Park where the haircuts used to wind up in the $18 range with tip, which I consider excellent reasonable, especially since they wield straight razors.
Saying that $18 is pretty close to zero, given that there are hundreds-of-dollars haircuts, is specious.
Not to be pushy or anything, but I am wondering (re: #7) what this Kostko character did in return for his obliging friend with the scissors.
My husband says to me "I have to get $8 haircuts, to offset your $75 haircuts." But then, I have just managed to convince him that moisturizer is his friend.
I thought moisturizer was every guy's best friend.
You get $75 haircuts? That wasn't the case when we were together, was it? And I know it's an unsophisticated view, but strange that your haircuts should cost so much now that your hair is so short.
Is it not the case that, rather than being simple and uncomplicated, short hair is in fact the most challenging hair to cut?
B-Wo, was that your Zizek impression again? Not that I've read Zizek, but I've seen enough impressions.
I haven't read Zizek either, beyond a few pages and web articles.
"It's not that I can't imagine a haircut cheaper than $18, but the guy was hoping for something enough cheaper than $18 that the price difference mattered to him? At that point, what is he doing in a barber shop rather than shaving his head with a disposable razor by feel?"
"18 is already pretty close to zero,"
Um, I'm not sure how to say this in a way that isn't going to make anyone feel that I'm pointing out that they're missing something, or otherwise feel annoyed, but it's really not at all that uncommon for a fair number of people to find that, say, $3 in their budget for that day, or even that week or that month, is a fairly significant amount, and yet still not want to be bald, and yet they don't have a friend who can do a competent job, but they need a haircut just then for some good reason, such as a job interview, or a major family event, or whathave you. Honest. A couple of bucks or so can be a lot for quite a lot of folks, at least, some of the time. $2-$5 can actually buy several days worth of food for a fair number of folks.
On the other hand, I'd never heard of Zizek until I read John Holbo, and I've still never read anything by him, and have little idea who he is beyond "a philosopher." Can I still comment here anyway?
On your first -- Yup, I was being a jerk there, particularly in the latter quoted sentence.
On your second -- I'm in exactly the same boat you're in with respect to Zizek; I hope it's not a pre-req for commenting here. (I actually know basically nothing about philosophy, barring one Phil of Language class I took undergrad. The fact that half the blogs I read seem to be populated mostly by philosophy types makes me vaguely insecure.)
I know what you mean, LB. Not a philosophy type myself. Though I have read loads of literary theory, which, luckily, provides some cover.
"not that he was what the Scripture terms a hairy man in any sense of the word."
Knowing about Zizek is a prerequisite for commenting at the Weblog, if anywhere. Here we lean more analytic. I don't know the first thing about Zizek either (except for what I've read in The New Yorker and chez Holbo and Kotsko).
And, y'know, I think the philosophy background manifests itself in my commentary as a general tendency to nitpick. I always sort of figure that everyone is laughing behind my back about this. (Actually, this came up IRL recently--I was told "I can see how you'd be very intimidating. You're kind of a force, you know." Lil ol' me?)
Zizek is a very hairy man.
I, by way of contrast, am a very smooth man. Ask the ladies.
Very convenient that the only female confab attendee is keeping mum.
Re 27, I refer you to the first line of 14: $18 in Oggedville is pretty amazing
I made my comment in that context. I know there are people for whom that's quite a lot of money, but they don't get their hair cut in Oggedville.
"The fact that half the blogs I read seem to be populated mostly by philosophy types makes me vaguely insecure."
It's been in more then just the back of my head for quite some time that when I read comments here I'm very conscious that I know essentially squat about formal philsophy. This doesn't make me feel particularly insecure, since there are a million other topics, important topics even, that I could say the same of. It is, though, one of several factors behind my having felt somewhat out-of-the-norm here ever since the recent (by my measure, given that I believe I may have been the first blogreader here who was neither Ogged or Unf, and I'm pretty sure I was The First Commenter Ever -- Ogged, wanna confirm or deny?) commenting zeigeist developed. Heck, I've never even completed an entire year of college, let alone been a college grad, let alone a grad student, or an academic (I've worked for a number of academics at a number of universities, including MIT, Yale, the New School (when it was still "For Social Research"), Columbia, NYU, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, and elsewhere, but that's a rather different perspective). That and some other factors (a lot of the use of developed Unfogged code language, aka "injokes," often zips past me, as well, for instance) sometimes make me less than full comfortable here, but I endure.
I pretty much have skipped over blog posts such as Holbo's on Zizek the way Ogged presumably skips blog entries on comics and allied geekery, though.
"...at the Weblog...." No disrespect to Kotsko intended, but why is his "the"?
"And, y'know, I think the philosophy background manifests itself in my commentary as a general tendency to nitpick."
What the hell is my excuse, then?
"Re 27, I refer you to the first line of 14: $18 in Oggedville is pretty amazing"
I read that as Profgrrrl saying that it was incredibly cheap, in comparison to the bargain $30 ones, so I'm not following you. I'm probably being slow, and I mean that sincerely (I've felt thickheaded and dizzy most of yesterday and all of today). Let me please repeat again that I wasn't trying to accuse anyone of anything, and then imagine I'm repeating it again, please.
"...sometimes make me less than full comfortable here...."
Let me be clear: this was not and is not a complaint.
No disrespect to Kotsko intended, but why is his "the"?
'cause that's its name: The Weblog. I should probably have capitalized 'the'.
Anyway, Zizek is (as I understand) definitely not formal or analytic philosophy, which is what I (and I think somewhat Labs) do. I just found out that Ogged's MA was on Kierkegaard so that doesn't apply to him. But the commentators here who have studied a lot of that kind of philosophy are in the minority, I think.
Are we playing Operator now? Not Kierkegaard, but Heidegger. Heidegger jokes (though they exist) are even worse than analytic philosophy jokes.
Or am I thinking of Telephone? Or are they the same game?
Ah, I was going on this and 12 in that thread, but overinterpreted.
And if you keep insulting ac I'm going to have to whup you. Or shake your insides into a macédoine or hash, if we're being canonical.
I know the game "telephone" (most children in America do, or at least did, I think; do they still?; beats me); never heard of the game "operator," which doesn't mean all that much.
I've studied Monty Python's "Philosopher's Song," but that only gets me so far.
Gary, I do think $18 is cheap for a haircut -- although I do realize that it isn't necessarily affordable for everyone. Particularly in Oggedville which is not a cheap part of the country.
My $30 haircuts are a bargain compared to what I used to pay. In Chicago in the mid-90s I was paying $75/cut. I tried $30 cuts then but they were never very good and I'd end up getting a second cut to fix the first.
So to recap my position -- $30 is a good price for a haircut in my small town which should not have expensive haircuts. That ogged can only pay $18 for a cut (jury still out on quality of said cut) in his much more expensive locale is impressive.
And I know nothing of philosophy. But I'm sure I slept at a Holiday Inn Express once.
Philostomy is great. I had a philostomy once and they gave me the best drugs. When it was over and I came to I was like whoa because of the drugs and because of they had put a tube in me that went straight to my philon? Which is where the doctor says you keep your love before you give it to someone else like Jesus. Like I said that's awesome but I don't know if I want someone to touch my love tube. Sorry Jesus.
(I actually know basically nothing about philosophy, barring one Phil of Language class I took undergrad. The fact that half the blogs I read seem to be populated mostly by philosophy types makes me vaguely insecure.)
LB, way I see it... hang out here one gets to laugh some, put in some downsized version of the total perspective vortex AND given a sort of randomised further education. Im waiting for the business model to kick in.
Re 39/41 - could he really have meant to insult me? Say it is not so. I'm going to have to slink away soon, trailing some unidentified sticky substance.
I did not mean to insult you, ac. I was thinking of stock Heidegger jokes, like the ol' Rats/Being bit.
Please ac, don't go. Just because Spode is crass it doesn't mean his heart isnt in the right place.
Besides I'd miss you round here.
There, said it.
there are stock Heidegger jokes?
I dont recall laughing once through the whole of "Sein und Zeit". Maybe it's me.
It's an extended bit, substituting "Rats" for "Being." Five seconds of searching fails to turn it up online.
Hegel jokes are the worst, I find. (And thank you, Austro.)
What I don't understand is why Ogged isn't more successful with women. Honestly. He's not so much hot and cold, as cold and colder, but it seems like it could work.
What I don't understand is why Ogged isn't more successful with women.
I think it's because, for the most part, their penises aren't big enough to satisfy him.
AND given a sort of randomised further education
You betcha. I actually bought Rawls' Theory of Justice on the basis of blog-references -- on slogging through it, I'm not getting a hell of a lot more out of it than I did the first time I saw the 'veil of ignorance' explained.
What I don't understand is why Ogged isn't more successful with women.
The goggle tan?
What I don't understand is why Ogged isn't more successful with women.
I thought it was the acrid scent of flop sweat, passive aggression, and aura of desperation.
Or was that Labs?
*low whistle*
*Thinks: "this is gonna get messy"*
exeunt
Aw, shit. Did I do it again? I think being mean is funny, but hope all understand that that's all I'm trying to do--be funny. No offense intended.
I'm just wondering who left with Austro? Or Austro is a collective?
It was more of the whistle of the bystander sitting at a table infront of the Bistro on the piazza watching the scene unfold... not a comment on an individual.
Yes but "exeunt" is plural as I'm sure you're aware.
(Note the Austro-like absence of a comma after "plural".)
LB, all of my personalities are my own work, and my own responsibility. Collectively, they define me.
I wasn't being insulting. I was picturing something along the lines of A Heart in Winter.
Yippee.. stage two has been achieved. I'Ve been w-lfs-ned. I believe the next stage is to insult Ogged and get banned, right?
I thought one had to promote a belief in a philosophical theory that irked ogged to get banned.
Let's see: John Stuart Mill's "Harm Theory" from On Liberty is the most succinct and accurate method for determining the rights of individuals in a just society.
A Heart in Winter.
Hooray! One of my favorite movies! (Mainly because Emmanuelle Beart is in it, but no, it's also very good.)
What am I, chopped liver? You haven't been "w-lfs-ned"; w-lfs-n merely explained my nitpick. Hmphf.
chopped liver
Hooray, chopped liver! Full of iron!
And suitable for bar mitzvah buffet-line sculpture!
Un Coeur en Hiver... one of the most (enter your favourite term for "it rocks" here) films I know of.
ac... would you date me, if I were ever to become free?
I have a hard time believing that the movie is worth the time necessary, or that being described as a character in it could be anything other than an insult. Description like this seems pretty damning: "He is the type of man who keeps to himself, who is too critical to live fearlessly, who understands more about his craft than about the mysteries of relationships and emotions."
(Note the Austro-like absence of a comma after "plural".)
what's that then, scotch mist?
I have SO been w-lfs-ned. I dealt with your quibble too, ya know... sheesh, just tryin' to get ahead, youse knows.
like I said... this is going to be fun.
Go on, rent it Timmy, it's good. (And Emmanuelle Beart really is unbelievably beautiful in it.)
is she not?
I was 13 years younger then, too... ah salad days.
You know what? I just might. But riddle me this, ogged: are you "too critical to live fearlessly"?
I will only say that the recent attempts to describe me by comparison with fictional characters have cracked me up.
I have a few entanglements of my own, Austro, but maybe someday.
I know, Ogged - you want to be Han Solo.
I'm trying to think what pap 80s song would best advise someone who was "too critical to live fearlessly." I'm pretty sure it would have to be something by Journey or Heart, but I can't get much farther than that.
lol..so ok, who's Chewie?
ac, ich sehne den Tag entgegen...
I know, Ogged - you want to be Han Solo.
If ogged is like most of the other Iranian men I know (and a fair number of the women), he's more like Chewbacca.
SCMT: "Eye of the Tiger"? The theme from Top-Gun?
Somehow "Kissing a Fool" is the 80s song coming to mind for me.
What's the Wham song with the refrain that starts "I'm never gonna dance again?"
Not to bring up painful memories, but maybe "Only a Lad" is the song for ogged.
41/48/49: Ogged links to pictures of PG, I defend ac from slights real and imagined.
(I'm kind of on hiatus, hence the slow response. And I'm going to miss the big date. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Keep in mind that one of the things I wouldn't do is fail to write up an NY Times "how we met" wedding announcement and Veiled Conceit-style response.)