Saturday

After such a long absence from writing these updates during my vacation home, I'm noticing a tendency for this column to dwell in the past. To counter that somewhat, I've added a long North Carolina story here. Some other, newsier tidbits I wanted to note from the same time period: did you ever wonder how routine manicures went from a hallmark of wealthy foppery to mass availability at every cut-rate neighborhood strip mall? Why the whole industry seems to be in the hands of Vietnamese immigrants? According to this L.A. Times feature, the answer to both questions is Tippi Hedren, who's apparently known for having very pretty talons. Meeting refugee professionals in a California relocation camp known as Hope Village, in 1975, Ms. Hedren became so fascinated with the women she flew her personal manicurist out to teach them how to do nails properly. She also convinced a nearby beauty school to enroll the immigrants, even went so far as to help them find jobs. This marriage of culture and industry stuck and persists today. You can purchase your activist figure here (thanks, Gwenda). Another one: according to this Thanh Niên News story, the small historic village of Phong Nam, ten kilometers out of Đà Nẵng, is losing tourist dollars over a rumor that its entire population of two thousand souls has cancer. Apparently, people from town are jeered in the streets of nearby communities. From the article:

Bachelors from neighboring villages stay far away from Phong Nam's women and many grooms-to-be have left their lovers since the "cancer village" rumor spread around the region.

Nice. Apparently there really have been twenty-six deaths from the disease over the last six years, but officials note that many of the residents of Phong Nam are over one hundred years old. [Cavin]