The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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W ednesday, October 8,, 20 8 - The Michigan DI y
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"By the time he's 10 he will "W.r ipyptoln
be a hardened criminal." our seas.aThink of us like a
- REX NEINDORF, director of the Alice
Springs Reptile Center in Australia, on a - SUGULE ALI, a pirate from Somalia, explaining
7-year-old boy who broke into the zoo and the pirates' motive for seizing a Ukrainianfreight
spent 35 minutes maliciously killing 13 animals, ship carrying grenade launchers, tanks, artil-
including turtles, bearded dragons, lizards and lery and ammunition valued at $30 million. In an
goannas. CCTV footage shows him smashing interview with The New York Times, Sugule said
rocks on the reptiles' heads and tossing small- the pirates only wanted money, and he also con-
er animals into the crocodile den. - demned illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia
"I am going to try and sell it."
- JOANNE SMITH, a 30-year-old woman from Chicago, explaining what she plans to do with a
house in Saginaw, Mich., that she bought for $1.75 on eBay. Seven other people also bid for the
house, which appears to be an abandoned shack. A note on the door says that a foreclosure hearing
is pending
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A little off the
bottom
A woman gets a cut from
campus's dudeliest barber
Ifyour coif isgettingshaggy, you
might head over to any one of Ann
Arbor's ubiquitous beauty salons.
Or, if you're willing to skip the
hand massage, scalp oil and every-
thing else remotely luxurious, you
can stroll through the swinging
screen door of Coach & Four Bar-
ber Shop on State Street, where
they offer custom haircuts for men,
women and children.
To be fair, though, the womanli-
estthingyou'll find there is a pants-
less beauty queen giving a coy stare
from a Michigan hockey poster.
I walked in for the first time last
Friday. But from the ambience, I
thought I had walked into a bar.
Besides the sexy poster, there were
the walls plastered with sports
cards, jerseys and taxidermy ani-
mals, including a roaring, hat-
wearing black bear holding a can
of Labatt Blue in its claws.
On the ceiling, fox pelts were
draped over a rusty trombone and
an old maize javelin.
With his wire-rimmed glasses,
tall, stocky build, trim white beard
and casual button-up shirt, owner
Jerry Erickson perfectly fits the
atmosphere of his shop.
Swiveling in the chair toward
where I sat waiting in the park-
style bench of his shop, he asked,
"Are you waiting for someone,
ma'am?"
No, I said, I was there for a hair-
cut.
"All right, then," he said, with
a chivalrous gesture toward the
chair. "Let's get you over here."
With 35 years of idle chat under
his belt, Jerry's conversation was
a welcome change from the forced
small talk at the Aveda Institute.
He seemed to actually enjoy talk-
ing, so I asked him to tell me about
his patrons.
He said he owes his livelihood to
local professors, lawyers and doc-
tors, "bread and butter customers"
who have come to his shop since
they were children.
Student customers come and go
but are "dynamite," he said, some
so loyal that they abstain from
haircuts all summer until they
can come and see him again in the
fall.
"When they come back they say
'Hey, I saved my hair for you, you
know?'"he said.
Erickson's celebrity clientele
include Michigan basketball coach
John Beilein and revered former
football coach Bo Schembechler,
whose signature adorns the poster
on the back wall, a black-and-white
aerial view of the Big House in the
1950s.
"I get kids coming in here and
saying, 'You cut my dad's hair in
the 70s,' " Erickson said. "And I
say, 'Well, I bet he had long hair
then, eh?"'
I told him my dad had an afro in
the 70s.
"Yeah," he laughed. He seems
amused by memories. "But they'd
be coming in with hair as long as,
yours."
'Did they take care of it?' I
asked.
"Oh, yeah," he said. "We'd just
trim it."
I reassured myself that hippie
wool would have been more of a
challenge than what laid before
him now - my shoulder-length yel-
low mop I hadn't bothered styling.
Unnerved by my feminine locks,
Erickson began to squirt liberally
with a spray bottle.
"Do you have a lot of girls come
in here?" Iasked.
"Oh, a fair amount," he said,
pulling and picking through my
hair with a fine-tooth comb. "Not
a lot. You know, 'cause we don't
do perms, we don't use a curling
av 40
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iron. We do basic cuts, trims like
yours."
The shop was otherwise filled
with men. Three, who looked to
be over 50, bantered and laughed
among themselves, making plans
to go out drinking that weekend.
A male student read a magazine
while he waited on the bench.
I asked Erickson if he befriends
many of his customers.
"Oh yeah," he said. "That's the
only way to be in business. When
it comes to politics you might be
a little different... but politics and
religion are something you usually
don't talk alot about."
"Especially when you're holding
the scissors," I replied.
He didn't laugh, and continued
making seemingly random snips at
the ends of my hair.
We talked about where we're
from. He grew up in Iron River,
Wisconsin, a small mining town
about 300 miles west of the Macki-
naw Bridge. Every fall, he said, he
"gets a kick" out of watching stu-
dents on Hill Street waiting for
their sports cars to be delivered
on huge flat-bed trucks from their
upscale hometowns.
Looking out the window toward
Hill Street, my eyes caught the
postcards, photographs, tennis
rackets and construction helmets
on the wall. "Do you decorate this
place yourself?" I wondered aloud.
"Yeah," he laughed. "It's just,
when somebody brings me some-
thing... Hey, Bill!"
Bill, a heavyset sixty-something,
walked through the door to chat
with Jerry about printing team
sweaters for their beer league.
"I've been on the team for quite
a while. I'm the old guy out there,"
Jerry finally explained. "Those
ILLUSTRATION BY ALLISON GHAMAN
kids get schooled."
A couple of minutes later, he
hands me a mirror.
"Well, I tell you what," he said,
fluffing my hair politely, "This gave
it a bit more body."
The first glimpse of my new look
was anti-climactic, but in a good
way. It was bluntly trimmed a cou-
ple of inches all the way around,
with proportionate bangs and dis-
tinguishable layers. I thanked him
and went to get my wallet.
"Now I got all you ugly guys,"
Erickson said to the men who had
accumulated on the benches. "She
came in here, and now I gotta work
with you scruffy guys. She made
my day."
I don't know if he made a regu-
lar out of me, but I tipped him 25
percent before I left.
- SARA LYNNE THELEN
TALKING
POINTS
Three things you can talk about this week:
1. The effects of the bailout
2. Space elevators
3. Bloomberg's third term
And three things you
can't:
1. Trust funds for pets
2Gordon Brown
3. Springsteen for
Obama
BY T HE NUMBERS
Number of condoms taken from the "condom mobile," part of
Mexico's Condomovil Program, last Thursday
Number of condoms the program has distributed since it
began in 1998
Height in feet of the giant inflatable condom that travels
with the "condom mobile"
Sou cCN
YOUTUBE
VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
A rap rumble on
Wall Street
In the financial district of New York
City, massive egos are about to clash.
"Ooh, a bunch of D-bag bankers,
look," says a boisterous consultant
from the firm BCG. Then a young
banker retorts, "somesconsultants,
ouch. Frobably got one suit, and they
bought it from Men's Warehouse."
With a beat reminiscent of 2Pac's
"California Love," the video shows
these two posses of young profes-
sionals engaged in a musical sparring
match on Wall Street - a hotdog ven-
dor mediates the battle.
"Work hard, play hard. Even your
mom thinks you're a tool," the con-
sultant raps. "Be a burnout, banker,
teaching math in my prep school."
The consultant says he abides by
the "Three C's." Chicks, cash and Cris-
tal. Meanwhile, the group of bankers
stands by, appearing unnerved by the
consultant's attacks. The bankers' out-
sized egos are under fire.
But then the leadbanker throwssoff
his suit jacket and gives the consul-
tants a piece of his mind.
"Button collar? Kenneth Cole shit?
Son, your Blackberry's like four years
old," the banker says, as he gets in the
consultant's face.
"You try to add value," the banker
says. "I straight create it. You get one
shitty idea and take six months just to
bake it."
Under siege, the consultants flee,
and the bankers christen their victory
with a bottle of Grey Goose vodka.
This video was created on Aug. 27.
It seems likely that bankers might not
be so pretentious now.
- BRIAN TENGEL
See this and other
YouTube videos of the week at
youtube.com/user/michigandaily
THEME PARTY SUGGESTION
Sweaterfest - It's October, which means falling
leaves, colder weather and, of course, sweaters.
Gather some friends and take a trip to Salvation
Army, where you'll be sure to find plenty of $3
sweaters that will make you look hardcore indie.
Try to branch out from the Kurt Cobain cardigan,
though. And don't just buy any sweater whose
colors match those on the cover of "The Catcher in
the Rye." Come on, you're better than that.
Throwing this party? Let us know. TheStatement@umich.edu
STUDY OF THE WEEK
Psychoanalysis may be an effective treatment
Despite the fact that it has been overshadowedby modern drugtreat-
ments and other care techniques, intensive psychoanalytic therapy may
actually prove effective for patients suffering from chronic mental ail-
ments like anxiety and personality disorder, according to a study pub-
lished last week in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study was conducted by Falk Leichsenring at the University of
Giessen and Sven Rabung at the University Medical Center Hamburg-
Eppendorf. Bothuniversities are in Germany.
The researchers examined 23 studies with a total of 1,053 patients, all
of whom were treated with psychoanalytic therapy. In these cases, the
patients were administered therapy often as frequently as three times a
week, and for periods sometimes as long as a year.
Afterreviewingthe casesthe researchers concluded that the psycho-
analysis had helped alleviate the symptoms more than did various forms
of short-term treatment, like cognitive behavior therapy.
- BRIAN TENGEL
WHAT'S YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT?
E-mail submissions to TheStatement@michigandaily.com