Sometimes a Story Needs 39 Or So Days to Really Percolate

From the New York Times' Friday front page:

A Haircut in Iraq Can Be the Death of the Barber
By ROBERT F. WORTH

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 17 - It was almost closing time in Sadiq Abdul Hussein's barbershop when a man in a black mask walked in, pulled out a pistol, and began spinning it on his finger, cowboy style.

The gunman was not after government officials or American collaborators. He had come because of the way Mr. Hussein cut hair.

From a February 7 Associated Press story (not online anywhere):

Islamic radicals hunt barbers in Baghdad for giving 'un-Islamic' haircuts
By OMAR SINAN; Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD--Umm Ali says militants killed her son last month for the most unlikely of reasons: He trims men's beards.

In Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, residents say Sunni Muslim extremists have made barbers the new hunted, accusing them of violating a strict reading of Islamic teachings that say men should keep their beards long.

Some extremists also consider Western-style haircuts an offensive symbol of the hated, secularized culture of Europe and the United States....

"He was a haircutter. He only cuts hair," Umm Ali said of her son, Sadiq Abdul Hussein. "He was handsome," she said, gazing at a photo of him.