How many NYT reporters does it take to come up with the worst lede of all time? Three, apparently. In a truly fantastic account of a beautyshop owner that throws scalding water on a robber and hits him over the head with a stool, Jennifer 8. Lee & Co. give us this opener:

On Broadway, the beauty-salon drama "Steel Magnolias" opened this month to mixed reviews. But in the real salons that tend to the city's countless cornrows and braids and weaves and other styles, there is a frighteningly real drama unfolding with a different sort of steel: the kind that is pulled out of a robber's pocket and pointed at the woman nearest the cash drawer.

We will forgive them, however, just for giving us the chance to see the following quote in the Times:

"I looked at his head and said, 'You ain't got no hair,' " said Leatha Labissiere, 38, who encountered the robber at Beauty and Nail Salon, at 1705 Church Avenue on April 8.

Awesomely-said. We ain't got nothing more to add.
(Google and your mom contributed to the reporting of this item.)
 —NH

A Shower of Boiling Water Interrupts a Long String of Hair Salon Robberies [NYT]