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« Gadgets ... and Tools | Main | What Does "Plain" Mean? »

January 01, 2008

 Bagatelle

Donald Pittenger writes:

Dear Blowhards --

I suppose I exaggerate slightly. But still ...

Based on my wife's experiences in the Puget Sound area, all inexpensive hairdressers and manicure gals are from Vietnam.

And they all are named "Linda."

Later,

Donald

posted by Donald at January 1, 2008




Comments

Nail salons in the New York area all seem to be staffed by Asians. Not hairdressers, as far as I can tell.

Posted by: Peter on January 1, 2008 10:53 PM

So the Asian-nail-salon thing is happening in the NW too? In NYC, as Peter says, all the nail gals (and salons themselves) seem to be Asian. And there are scads and scads of them, sometimes several in a single block. How do these things happen? Is someone on the phone with relatives back in the Old Country saying, "You gotta move here, the nail-salon business is a freaking goldmine!"?

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on January 1, 2008 11:40 PM

It's like that in the DC area. Nail salons for sure, and when you restrict it to "inexpensive" hairdressers, that too.

Posted by: agnostic on January 2, 2008 1:30 AM

Absolutely---all over the country. Certainly true in Dallas and in St. Louis. In fact, more expensive salons often don't do acrylic nails at all because the more inexpensive Asian "salons" (and using that word is a stretch--usually a very small storefront in a strip mall with a TV with bad reception) are just too tough to compete with.

Posted by: annette on January 2, 2008 9:20 AM

Well, heh to that! I've got a Viet-Linda nail salon on my very block, here in downtown Ottawa.

Doing jobs Canadians (and Americans) won't do?

Posted by: PatrickH on January 2, 2008 2:20 PM

PatrickH: Are you saying People of Asian descent aren't Americans or Canadians? Get a grip.

Posted by: Verity on January 3, 2008 8:17 PM

Relax, Verity. Jeebs. I was just making a crack that jobs filled by immigrants are often described as 'jobs [native] X'ers won't do'. It amused me to use that description for running nail salons, since there's no reason at all why [native!] Canadians wouldn't do the job. Hence the mystery of the Linda-run nail salons. That's all. I suppose the joke would have worked better if I'd asked, "Jobs non-Lindas won't do?"

Posted by: PatrickH on January 4, 2008 9:07 PM


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