[MR] new vs. old

[MHWag at aol.com]

from Aileen:
This story is peripherally related to the topic, but I thought it was 
hilarious and does make a small point.
One slow afternoon, we were sitting around the nurses station discussing 
cultural hair practices.  For example, many black families will not cut their 
sons hair until their first birthday.  One of our Pakistani pediatricians did 
not want to take her children to visit their grandparents because she was 
afraid that their heads would be shaved.  We were asking if anyone knew the 
source of this particular custom, when another Indian pediatrician said that 
when he and his sister were a year old, their heads were shaved. Someone 
said, "your parents did that to let the spirits out, right?"  Well, probably 
not, he answered, since we're Methodist........