To Beard or not to Beard--Should Not Even be a Question

I recently encountered an old friend in the midst of facial hair experimentation. A normally beautiful face was now hideously distorted, as if a rat had clung onto his gorgeous chin and died.

This tragedy made me wonder, does facial hair EVER enhance a man's level of attractiveness? While i feel many older men, my father, Tom Selleck, and the post man would look rather silly and youthful without a bushy moustache, are they only on of the handfuls of an exception?

Perhaps the problem is grooming. Facial hair, like all hair, needs to be groomed, dead rats should be sleek and tamed like baby squirrels. If a man grows facial hair to avoid the pesky shave, then no doubt he will avoid the oh-so-necessary task of grooming said facial hair.

On the contrary, last night I encountered a guy with acceptable facial hair. He was a grunge hippy with red hair. His chin's dead rat was barely visible, giving him a rustic, mountain man look. It was one dead rat I didn't mind looking at.

Ode to the First Day of School

For some time I've considered the start of school following Labor Day to be a cruel and sinister joked played on poor innocent members of the academic community. Perhaps it is more than slightly ironic that students and teachers begin their days of labor after a day celebrating labor, when in fact, they have not labored for nearly three months.

Bittersweet joy follows the end of rest on Monday and the beginning of work on Tuesday. The absence from labor has ended, the days at the shore over, the tan will soon fade, but at least plaid and wool will soon be in season.

And on another note, in attempts to combat the end of summer and the end of the day without labor, today I wore white--not in defiance of those sacred fashion Labor Day rules, but rather in celebration of another summery day, that without the calander could be just and pleasant as the last day of school.