Words to Live By

 

November 20, 2025

 

From Richard Osman’s book We Solve Murders:

 

Jeff looks over at Tony. “No offense.”

 “I never take offense,” says Tony. “Saved me a lot of time over the years.”

 

I like it. 

 

 

 

Unintended Consquences

 

November 15, 2025

 

I gave my hairdresser a holiday tip early, instead of waiting until December. I did it so that I could get it out of the way before the holiday money crunch started. She appreciated it because her work was drying up.

 

As she explained it, with the government shutdown, many people who worked for the government or received benefits couldn’t afford to get their hair done.

 

So, the shutdown had ripples that never occurred to me.

 

 

 

 

A Hairy Rebellion

 

November 8, 2025

 

After my haircut, my hairdresser picked up a huge brush and prepared to style my hair as she was drying it.

 

“Don’t,” I said. “I’ll dry it at home.” She thought it was because she was using a flat brush instead of a round brush. I told her it didn’t matter.

 

I continued, “For some reason, hairdressers have gotten into the habit of styling the hair to be round around the face. It looks weird. I get home, and my family says, ‘What happened to your hair?’ So, from now on I’ll just dry it at home.”

 

She admitted that it seemed to be a trend to style hair that way. (And it’s been going on for years.) I repeated, “Well, it looks weird.”

 

As I turned to go, I saw a woman in another chair looking at me appraisingly. She may have thought that I was the weird one. But I chose to think that it was a look of approval.