The last time this columnist had a haircut was at a hostel in Fremantle Western Australia (WA) when George W. Bush was in the lame duck phase of his second term, so when we heard that human hair was needed for the oil spill cleanup in the Gulf area, we thought maybe it was about time to go sit in the barber's chair.
It seems like just the other day when we were sitting in the courtyard of a hostel in the W. A. with a charming hairdresser from England doing her best to make us look less like a hippie. She said she was from a place called Stockton. We've been through StocktonCalifornia, but we had never heard that there was a city in England with the same name. We were told it was the place where the "Northern Soul" sound was perfected. We'd never heard of "Northern Soul" either. Learning new stuff like that is why ya gotta wander away from VeniceBeach occasionally.
We were a bit skeptical about the possibility that getting the Samson trim would help the folks contending with an oil slick approaching the famous Florida beaches. Later we also found some information on line about <a href = http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html> Matter of Trust</a>. On a walk to downtown Berkeley, we stopped into a beauty salon and asked if the hair that landed on their floor had any chance of helping the folks in the Gulf area and were told that someone from UCB has been stopping by on Fridays to pick up the much needed supply of surplus hair.
Since the BerkeleyUniversity's Public Affairs office was about two blocks away we immediately toddled over and asked if they could confirm the story for us. The receptionist gasped: "Wow! That's a good story!" and promised to track down a source so that we could add a substantiating quote to our potential "scoop."
We checked with a few more beauty salons. One lady said she had the business card of the person who had contacted them, but the search was unproductive and we were left with only anecdotal information about the collection of hair for use in the oil cleanup efforts.
Scoops in the Internet era become a funny thing. We were hustling to get the story first, but then realized that we'd be glad to give permission to cross post this column to both the <a href =http://www.berkeleyside.com>Berkeleyside</a> and <a href =http://www.Bekrleydailyplanet.com>Berkeley Daily Planet</a> websites.
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