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Hair today, Gone to Maui
The above title looks like gibberish, but it’s not. That’s the name of a beauty salon in Milwaukee, the winner in our search for cleverest trade names. This beauty shop’s takeoff on the phrase “Here today, gone tomorrow,” is a fitting introduction to this punny business of punning.
Any way you snip it, beauty salons probably have the most punny monikers, even more than sewing shops (which offer gems like Sew Crazy, Sew It Seams, Seams Right and other delights).
In the world of punnery, salons are on the Cutting Edge (a real shop in St. Ignace). One stylist I talked to believes the clever names are a natural expression of the creative environment in the shops, where stylists deal daily with new hair styles and shades for the office, dates, weddings, reunions, banquets, portraits or everyday wear.
Although most parlors have regular names, often including the name of the owner or location, a large percentage are very unusual, most imaginative, often phunny. A shop owner interviewed in Inc Magazine said styling is a “trend-driven business...you have to keep up with the trends or you’re just going to get old with your clientele and die.” Part of the trend involves unique and hopefully memorable names. Whatever the reason, punsters and pun lovers are among the beneficiaries.
Shearly You Jest
“Shear”—a salonizing of the word “sheer”—is possibly the most popular choice for shop punsters. From Milwaukee to Houghton, from Ironwood to Sault Ste. Marie, and everywhere in between, we found over a dozen establishments whose names began with the S-word. Running down a list of them may tend to dim the stand-alone luster of each individual title, but here they are:
Shear Bliss
Shear Delight
Shear Dimension
Shear Genius
Shear Happiness
Shear Image
Shear Madness
Shear Magic
Shear Perfection
Shear Performance
Shear Point
Shear Satisfaction
Except for Shear Madness (which might allude to wilder, imaginative styling), all of them have positive, welcoming marquees. No Shear Panic or Lunacy or Terror, thank goodness.
Hair-De-Hair-Hair
That H-word—which, after all, is the core of the business—lends itself to some ingenious twists. Haus of Hair in Milwaukee, for instance, is so appropriate for that Germanic-influenced city. The H-word also shines in a string of variations on an aeronautic theme. Hair Lines (Iron Mountain), Hairport (Ironwood), Hair Express (Grand Rapids), and The Hair Force (Milwaukee)—all conjuring up flights of fancy in the upper atmosphere of the imagination.
Hairsmith in Houghton has a down-to-earth ring, as does Hair on Earth in Marquette; its opposite number of Hairway to Heaven is on marquees in several places. There are no guarantees of celestial approval, as we found no shops specializing in the repair or waxing of halos.
I love these twists on old words and phrases: Hairacy (Grand Rapids), Hair’m (Menominee), Hair I Am (Menominee), and its plural version Hair We Are (Grand Rapids). The namers earned a laugh when these gems came to mind.
Hats All, Folks
Headlines (in L’Anse and Harvey) demonstrate the use of a good solid, newspaper word to paint on the window, but Head Trip might be misinterpreted (we found no Head Case, fortunately). The Headhunters Salon in Marquette appears to be a marketing suggestion, rather than a violent encounter. Hot Headz in Escanaba is a real sizzler, Hats Off of Ishpeming is a place to doff your chapeau for a treatment, and A Head Of The Times is just flat-out clever . . .
—Larry Chabot
Editor’s Note: Since some of the sources are dated, one or more of the listed shops may no longer exist, or may have undergone owner and name changes.
Labor of Love
Locals make their own snowshoes in DNR workshop
It took many of them more than six hours to complete their projects, but all crafters walked away with a sense of fulfillment—and a new pair of snowshoes in hand, soon to be on foot.
The Department of Natural Resources hosted snowshoe-making workshops throughout the U.P. this winter, led by Tahquamenon State Park interpreter Teresa Neal.
“This is a unique opportunity to learn how to make a pair of snowshoes by hand,” Neal said. “Not only is the workshop itself a fun experience, but snowshoeing also is an enjoyable way to get outdoors during the winter months. It’s a great activity for all ages—if you can walk, you can snowshoe.”
In Escanaba, the one-day workshop began at 10:00 a.m., and a diverse group of a dozen participants learned how to weave a pair of traditional white ash snowshoes that will last for generations.
Neal, who deals mostly with park visitors in the summer, took on the workshops as a project for the wintertime, along with the hunter meetings and school presentations that fill her schedule.
“I want to give people something else to do in the winter time,” she said. “The winters are long, and for people with knee or back problems, snowshoeing is easier than skiing.”
Neal began by reminding her participants of the freedom snowshoes offer.
“You can access places you wouldn’t normally be able to go in the winter,” she said.
This access is the reason early people used the devices. Archaeologists haven’t pinned down when the snowshoe was first used, but paintings of snowshoe-like relics—or “shoe-skis”—have been found on cave walls from thousands of years ago.
While early snowshoes probably were made from bent wood and animal skins, a variety of materials are used for modern versions.
Neal taught her class about the different varieties of shoes before the crafting began:
• Alaskan—Used for traveling long distances in open spaces, these shoes bear a lot of weight and are not good for winding terrain.
• Bear Paws—These short and wide versions are used mostly by trappers for traversing through brush.
• Rawhide—These traditional-looking shoes are extremely durable, but need to be varnished multiple times a year, and the material doesn’t last long.
• Michigans—These shoes are mostly used for travel through light, fluffy snow.
• Drift-Busters—The most versatile, these snowshoes are a marriage between the Michigan and the Bear Paw.
Neal also discussed the smaller, plastic-and-metal varieties available today.
“The crampons are good on icy snow, but you will sink down unless you have a packed trail,” she said.
Workshop participants started making their own Drift-Busters, selecting sets of pre-made white ash frames made in Shingleton.
These frames, made from wood found in Germfask, are made by one man in the area who steams and bends the wood.
“It’s a dying art,” Neal said.
During the 1960s, snowshoe makers began to use neoprene lacing as a man-made option to the rawhide-laced decking. Customers appreciated how neoprene did not stretch like rawhide when it became wet, and did not require annual treatment with shellac.
Neoprene was the medium of choice at the workshop, as well. Students started making the middle part of the shoe, or the harness, where the binding attaches.
“At Iverson, he uses a vice,” she told her students. “We will use our legs.”
Neal offered instruction booklets to her class, got them started with a quick demonstration, and spent the day offering advice and fixing problems. Noodle-like strands of giant rubberband-like material was woven in and out, over and over again.
The group bonded with an immediate camaraderie, helping each other through tough parts, laughing and joking about their progress—or sometimes, lack thereof. Neal’s comments broke the sometimes studious silence: “This one should be tight like a banjo string,” “Don’t cover the holes!” and “Use your cheat sheet!”
Participant Judy DeGrand of Escanaba wanted to make a pair of snowshoes like the ones she had as a child.
“My grandfather used to make these,” she said. “I guess I needed him to smile down on me.”
Another participant, 15-year-old Justin Sprigs, was one of the first to complete his project. Although his dad made him attend the workshop, he got swept up in the enthusiasm of the group as well.
“My hands are tired, but I had fun,” he said.
The students’ advice for future participants is to be prepared for a full day.
“Bring a lunch,” DeGrand said.
The DNR hosts these workshops from October through January each year. The workshop fee is $160, which includes all materials and equipment needed to make one pair of snowshoes. Class size is limited and reservations are required. For details, call Neal at 492-3415.
—Kristy Basolo
‘Shots and Stories’ winners announced
“Shots and Stories,” was held in conjunction with Peter White Public Library’s second annual Storytelling Festival.
Photographers interested in telling stories about their photographs submitted work to the show.
Stories that accompanied the photographs were 200 words or less. It was a nonjuried show.
Prizes were awarded by viewer votes. For details, call 228-0472.
The three winning stories are below, accompanied by the photos.
Meeting Rosa
by Christine Garceau
I arrived at Nettie’s house with my three-year-old son Peter and close friend Suzanne in tow. We were looking forward to hearing how Nettie’s day had gone as minder for Michigan Technological University’s spring commencement speaker.
Although the details were never made clear how it had happened, Rosa Parks came to Houghton on that dreary day to present her views on life after graduation to the next generation of engineers and foresters.
Before we were able to step out of the car, Nettie rushed out of the house and commanded that we follow her car across the river to the top of Quincy Hill. Rosa’s plane had been grounded by fog and a sight-seeing tour was underway.
We arrived at an old farmhouse, and before I realized what had happened, Suzanne took my son while Nettie directed me to follow Rosa upstairs to an empty bedroom. I was, Nettie explained, going to take Rosa’s portrait.
At the time, the late 1980s, I had been working as a freelance newspaper photographer and rarely traveled without my camera.
Luckily, on that fateful day, I had my camera loaded with a new roll of film.
Bread Pudding
by Ellen Moore
It started last winter, my craving for bread pudding.
Bread pudding does not take me back. I never had bread pudding as a child. Suddenly bread pudding appeared in my life, appeared on menus at various restaurants and coffee houses about town. I didn’t order it right away, but got around to it eventually, and then it was all I wanted. I’d make special stops at the bagel shop in Chena Pump Plaza on my way home from work, hoping to find bread pudding.
Last spring, I made one of these special stops, sat down at a table near the window, pleased to have a nice, healthy serving. I dug in and felt nothing. I was full. I didn’t need that bread pudding like I thought I did. I was cured.
I began this semester unable to think about anything except the guy I started to fall in love with last summer . . .
Artist-in-Residence applicants sought
Applications are being accepted for the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park Artist-in-Residence Program for the 2010 spring, summer, fall and 2011 winter residencies. The Artist-in-Residence Program is open to artists and artisans whose work can be influenced by this unique northern wilderness setting.
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, also known as “The Porkies,” is a 65,000-acre park made up of twenty-five miles of shoreline, four inland lakes, entire river systems, many waterfalls, wooded peaks and an escarpment that rises from the edge of Lake Superior and drops into the Carp River valley.
The park also features a virgin forest of eastern hemlock and northern hardwoods, and the variety of flora and fauna. Because of these attributes, the park is an ideal location to inspire artistic creativity.
The Artist-in-Residence Program offers writers, composers and all visual and performing artists an opportunity to experience the natural beauty of the Porkies, and express it through their chosen art form. Each year, artists are selected for residencies lasting a minimum of two weeks.
Artists will be given the use of a rustic cabin located on the Little Union River and, if requested, a three-night back country permit so they may explore the park’s 65,000 acres of natural beauty and ninety miles of rugged backcountry trails.
During their residency, artists will be asked to share their experience with the public through demonstrations or talks. At the conclusion of the experience, the artist is required to contribute an art piece representative of their stay.
Information about the program and an application for the 2010 spring, summer, fall and 2011 winter residencies can be obtained at www.porkies.org/artist.html
Applications must be postmarked by March 31, 2010, and mailed to Friends of the Porkies/AIRP; P.O. Box 221; Ontonagon, MI 49953.
Selection will be based on artistic integrity, ability to reside in a wilderness environment, a willingness to donate a finished piece of art inspired by the stay in the Porkies, and the artist’s ability to relate and interpret the park through an art medium.
The program is open to all art forms except those that may be inconsistent with the mission of the park. Successful artists will be notified on or before April 23, 2010 . . .
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