My preciousssssssssss.......

[PB+J]

I bought an electric clipper and cut my hair myself--badly.

I have research to do over in Ireland but have no idea when I might be able to do it. But I've got research to do in the states and can't do that either--all the archives are closed for the foreseeable future.

My University has still not decided if in-person classes will resume in the fall.

Where we live there are no armed lunatics demanding everything re-open, but they've been marching around an hour or so to the south. It seems very likely to me that states will re-open under that pressure and we will be well over 100, 000 dead by June. I hope not.

[Mr.Gumby]

Here is the proposed roadmap for exiting the lockdown but that will be subject to change as circumstances dictate.

Some institutions, like ITMA, have staff on stand-by to reply to questions and do a bit of research but that's probably not enough for your research purposes.

Even the closure of the Public Library system hurts but I am not quite ready to support Amazon except for very pressing matters. Libraries are set to re-open on June 8, with social distancing in place, that may or may not include academic libraries/archives.

Online I did stumble into a fully new/old stock Paddy Cronin lp at a reasonable price that I have coveted for a long time. The price of postage was a killer though, more than the thing itself. And I had to order a microphone to do the NPU video, we'll have to see if it arrives in time. Keeping the postman busy.

[Nanohedron]

I bought an electric clipper and cut my hair myself--badly.

And that is pretty much inevitable at the outset. It'll probably take at least a few times until you get the real hang of it. And if you insist on skipping a basic how-to book, you do so at your peril. I've been cutting my own hair for donkey's years - and by now I must be doing it pretty darned well, for I've gotten surprised compliments from stylists, and that right there says there can be hope on the tonsorial horizon for all of us who want to cut our own and look good. I've gone by both scissors and by clipper, in various permutations (remember the shag cut? Oh, right ... probably not. ), so I can humbly submit that I've been around the block a few times. I just use a clipper now (mainly), but because I'm doing it myself, it follows that I can still miss things: usually it's the hairs that hang down that crease where the back of the ear meets the head. But that's what touch-up scissors and a check with the fingers are for.

I can't think of anyone embarking upon this path who hasn't told the same beginner's tale of woe, so take heart. You're in good company. And in the meantime you have two remedial things in your favor: 1) The sequestering, which means you can limit the number of people who will say to themselves, "Aha. I know who's been trying to cut his own hair." And 2) Here's your opportunity to flirt with Hipster Chic:

[fatmac]

I've been cutting my own hair since the 60s, first with comb & scissors & two mirrors, then with electric clippers from the 70s, right up to now - I must have saved a fortune, just don't know where it went.....

[Nanohedron]

I must have saved a fortune, just don't know where it went.....

Tell me about it.

[busterbill]

My son is home with us and cutting his own hair. He is 25 and a soccer player who goes for the trendy. He was trying for the look of a famous player and ended up with something that looked like bald sides and an off kilter v in the back. I evened out the V, which satisfied him for a few hours. Then he decided he wanted it higher so he got his sister involved. Now he has hair on the top and has taken "short back and sides" to a new level. He has a good sense of humor and of self and knows he's unlikely to see anyone soon. Fortunately hair does grow.

[busterbill]

While I dislike my facemask because I always feel as if I'm suffocating, I found a reason to appreciate it: I can get away with skipping shaving. Stubble used to make me look raffish, but at my age, now it makes me look more like a bum.

I do believe hearing that beards or stubble make the masks less effective.

I've been wearing mine out in my neighborhood to be a bit of an example and just to get used to it. I figure there is a learning curve and if I am sick at some point that is not the time to teach myself new habits. I am getting the balance of how to wear it and keep my glasses from getting fogged up, and noticing when it likes to fall off my nose as well as noting when I have huge air gaps.

I did see two of my neighbors talking to a contractor (landscaping is deemed essential here for some unknown reason). Because they were wearing masks they were standing right on top of each other. Last week, without masks they would have kept their distance. These masks are not meant of replace social distancing.

I am avoiding shops, but did wear it through the drive thru' at my local drug store. When I called about over the counter allergy meds that usually require an in person visit by law, they told me they were selling them that way. They just needed an ID, but I didn't have to go inside.

[Nanohedron]

My son is home with us and cutting his own hair. He is 25 and a soccer player who goes for the trendy. He was trying for the look of a famous player and ended up with something that looked like bald sides and an off kilter v in the back. I evened out the V, which satisfied him for a few hours. Then he decided he wanted it higher so he got his sister involved. Now he has hair on the top and has taken "short back and sides" to a new level. He has a good sense of humor and of self and knows he's unlikely to see anyone soon. Fortunately hair does grow.

I knew a guy - a Punkish sort - who insisted on cutting his and anyone else's hair with old-fashioned sheep shears. Worked pretty well for those styles, actually, if your thing is looking like something from the Andy Warhol School of Applied Coiffure Theory. Had a horse named Rubella.

I do believe hearing that beards or stubble make the masks less effective.

I confess that had slipped my mind.

I've been wearing mine out in my neighborhood to be a bit of an example ...

"There goes the walking rebuke."

But I'd be lying if I said I didn't wear it partly for that reason, too.

[Katharine]

I bought an electric clipper and cut my hair myself--badly.

For some reason I first read this as "I bought an electric guitar and cut my hair myself-- badly" and I was thinking, "Well, lifestyle/persona changes are cool..."

[Nanohedron]

Fallow deer chilling in a residential area near Romford, London:



One of my fellow tenants swears she saw a wolverine a few days ago, up in a tree by our back lot. She called the local DNR (equivalent to the UK's DEFRA) and was told that while it's very unusual indeed, it isn't impossible; males have been known to travel 500 miles just for a mate, and there are past confirmed sightings as far south as Illinois. But their normal range usually extends no further south than the US/Canadian borderlands at the extreme, so even with viable habitat, a bold, out-in-the-open sighting this far south (and in the city, no less) would be a real shock. Here's a pic to give you a sense of scale:



Make no mistake - this one's obviously a pet raised from infancy, in all likelihood a rescued orphan that now can't survive in the wild on its own. Wolverines wouldn't normally be one bit nearly as docile, socialized, affable and dependent; typically they're elusive yet assertive, solitary, bad-tempered, and fearless -- nasty customers if they even think you're in their way, and powerful enough to bring down much larger animals than themselves if it suits them. They don't look for trouble, but they won't hesitate to hand it out, and in spades. If I saw one running loose around here I'd probably have to go change my undies.

Unlike the deer above, a wolverine sighting here would be so rare that it's hard to attribute to the stay-at-home thing. But all sorts of wildlife that you never used to see have now been urbanized for years, so who knows. I wouldn't expect a normal wolverine to adapt well to living around human activity long-term, though, so I'm guessing that the one sighted would have just been passing through. It's easy to imagine that the quieter-than-normal surroundings might have emboldened it to unwontedly hang out in plain sight like that, though.

[Nanohedron]

I've been wearing mine out in my neighborhood to be a bit of an example ...

... I'd be lying if I said I didn't wear it partly for that reason, too.

And it was only a matter of time before it rubbed someone the wrong way, because a total stranger just confronted me about it. I won't go into details because my nemesis's political motivations were all too plain, but suffice it to say that I was not without comment, myself: "If nothing else, I see it as a courtesy - but from what I've seen of you so far, presumably you wouldn't know anything about that."

I'm so bad.

[an seanduine]

Nano, that is s-o-o- sad. Some things are medical, and scientific, not political.
Around my neck of the woods I see multiple people wearing surgical masks every year during flu season. Nothing political about.
Cultural maybe, but not political.

On a slightly different note. . .I cannot imagine putting my face anywhere near a wolverine under any circumstance.
Puts me into mind of a phrase I recently came across: Someone as agitated as a man with an enraged honey-badger well up his kilt!
I´d tell you to keep smiling, he´ll wonder what you are up to, but if you´re wearing your mask he wouldn´t see it.

Bob

[david_h]

One of my fellow tenants swears she saw a wolverine a few days ago, up in a tree by our back lot.

Some walkers in England reported a tiger resulting in an armed police unit and helicopter turn-out.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-52520773

A common point may be that with lockdown people are noticing things more in their nearby surroundings and, in England, exploring local paths that they don't normally use.

[Nanohedron]

I´d tell you to keep smiling, he´ll wonder what you are up to, but if you´re wearing your mask he wouldn´t see it.

I must admit that it wasn't one of my finer moments; because of his nonstop needling, I lost my composure and had a LOT more to say to him, and much of it was too salty to be printable here. But at least he knows my position, and that I have scant, if any, respect for his.

Some walkers in England reported a tiger resulting in an armed police unit and helicopter turn-out.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-52520773

Oh, for the love of Mike. First glance told me the "tiger" wasn't real.

Contrarywise, the wolverine was quite alive and all too real: it had been moving about in the tree, but when it saw that it had been spotted and was being watched, it stopped, stared at the person, and then made its exit down to the ground and into the brush, no longer to be seen. The spotter had been out for a smoke at 3am, but there was a floodlight nearby, so everything was in plain enough view. At first she wasn't quite sure what she'd seen - raccoon? No, they're considerably smaller and pudgy; skunk? No, skunks are also too small and normally don't climb trees, which ruled out a badger, too - but her description was so spot-on as to be unmistakable. She prudently went back into the building just in case, did a Web search, and thereby identified the critter.

... as agitated as a man with an enraged honey-badger well up his kilt!

They're related species, and share similar traits and ecological niches. Wolverines are hunters, but in North America they rely more on scavenging because of greater competition from other predators.

[PB+J]

We try to go on weekend hikes and the farther out we go, the fewer masks we see. Partly it's understandable--the virus is probably not out there yet and it may never get to places with less concentrated population, though I have my doubts about that.

We get a little bit of stink-eye from some people when we are wearing masks, but so far no active hostility. I'm pretty sure if we spent enough time farther out we'd get some of what you got.

Sorry you had to deal with that