17 January 2022 – Here at the hair salon, everyone is vaxxed, masked, distanced, and hand-sanitized. Fully compliant.

Fully compliant with the current hygiene/medical protocol required by our provincial government.

Those of us who favour one particular hair cutter, however, must comply with an additional protocol.

It is linguistic.

We talk a blue streak. We discuss ships and shoes and sealing wax … and Vancouver’s recent snow … and Toronto’s current snow … even the derivation of the word “orangutan” (from the Malay/Indonesian orang + utan, i.e. person + forest).

But not a word about you-know-what. It is wonderfully restful.