Kryponite and garlic--(Why the hair-salon name "Krytonnite"?)

[Seán Fitzpatrick]

According to an article from the (Hamden, CT?) Register
(http://snurl.com/tywsz  - Kryptonnite Beauty Salon - Dominican Stylists)
about the Kryptonnite hair salon:
"A 'DO DONE RIGHT:  BLACK AND LATINO WOMEN ARE FLOCKING TO DOMINICAN SALONS"
"Women from the Caribbean know to look for the salon with the sign:
Dominican.
These salons may as well advertise:  "We can handle any type of hair.'  They
are the bronco busters of the hair world, the follicle tamers with no
rivals."

So, maybe the name is an allusion to their ability to tame "difficult" hair,
and the non-standard spelling is just because they were never 10-year-old
white American geeks (NTTIAWWT).  Or maybe the proprietor thought
"Kryptonnite" looked cool, or it's her daughter's name.  Maybe it's just me,
but the double-n version does look more feminine to me.  The image on the
home page is somewhere between mediaeval and Sapphic.

Sean Fitzpatrick
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?
I blame Global Warming.
http://www.logomachon.blogspot.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: Cohen, Gerald Leonard [mailto:gcohen at MST.EDU]
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: Kryponite and garlic--(Why the hair-salon name "Krytonnite"?)

Here's a guess as to the origin of the hair-salon name "Kryptonnite."
Kryptonnite is the only substance in the universe that can make Superman
lose all his strength.  I don't remember if it knocks him out or merely
renders him totally weak. Meanwhile, the 2 n's in "Kryptonnite" permit us to
divide the word into "Krypton" plus "nite" (alternate spelling of "night").

 So the hair-salon name humorously implies that the women who emerge from a
hair-styling session there will be so feministically powerful that they can
make even Superman go weak in the knees. They are therefore  sort of
promised a Krypton night, i.e., an evening out in which they will can have a
devastating effect on whichever men they may be interacting with.

Gerald Cohen
P.S. Btw, Superman (as a Superbaby) arrived on earth in a spaceship sent by
his parents from the planet Krypton shortly before it blew up.

________________________________

>At 1/2/2010 10:13 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>There's a hair salon about a half mile from my house whose name is
>>"Kryptonnite".  I have no idea why (or what's with the two n's), but
>>I haven't seen Superman around the neighborhood, so I guess it works.
>

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