On the famous mug of American author John Steinbeck we usually picture a thin private-eye mustache. But I've been reading his later non-fiction Travels with Charley, & in a section where he is describing his camping costume ("utilitarian if a bit bizarre"), he has a fine paragraph in praise of beard:My face has not ignored the passage of time, but recorded it with scars, lines, furrows, & erosions. I wear a beard & mustache but shave my cheeks; said beard, having a dark skunk stripe up the middle & white edges, commemorates certain relatives. I cultivate this beard not for the usual given reasons of skin trouble or pain of shaving, nor for the secret purpose of covering a weak chin, but as pure unblushing decoration, much as a peacock finds pleasure in his tail. And finally, in our time a beard is the one thing a woman cannot do better than a man, or if she can her success is assured only in a circus.
It's a little hard to find photos of Steinbeck's beard. For such a public figure, why is it so hard to find pictures of his bearded phase - is the anti-beard establishment deliberately repressing them? Here's one of Steinbeck lurking behind his son, John Steinbeck IV, a journalist in Vietnam, meeting President Johnson:
Charley is also a fine hairy man. We think of manly Steinbeck, roughing it around the continental United States with his camper & his dog, an American archetype. But Charley is not only a poodle, but a large black French Poodle born & raised in France. (His nationality especially shows in his skill with romance.) With his peacock beard & his French poodle, there's a nice redefinition of American masculinity.
August 26, 2009
Department of Beards: John Steinbeck's Peacock Beard
February 28, 2009
How To Beard: Suggestions thru the Tweetosphere
samamidon
olaf mary, teach me about BEARDS
OlafMary
we can start with the history of beards: beards go way back. before history.
samamidon
thank you olafmary. question # 2: how do i grow one?
OlafMary
I thought this might be the central "thrust" of your inquiry. Talk to genetic engineers. Go back in Time, make Peter eat more spinach. Wait.
OlafMary
option 2: cut some hair from your head, apply one side of double-sided tape to upper lip, affix hair to other side. Wait for your cheeks.
OlafMary
Wait for your cheeks to respond from the encouragement.
OlafMary
from? to? of? also find out what brand of whiskey Ulysses S Grant drank and drink it. Wait.
OlafMary
option 3: buy a floppy hat, a gray suit, and some big ears. then write a really long poem called, "Song of Myself." Wait.
OlafMary
look to other parts of the body as possible beard habitats. perhaps your pubic hair is a "penis beard." maybe your armpit hair is
SSandrigon
How to beard #5: Hold your cheeks against dry ice for 5⅞ hours. If this doesn't work, you are a damn fool.
SSandrigon
How to beard #7: Apply to the circus & when the there aren't any openings for the pinheads or strong men, become the bearded lady.
February 22, 2009
Paparazzi 2001: Great Lords & Ladies with Beards & Mustaches
Friend-of-the-Blog & good-woman-in-a-tight-corner Miss Annalee F. was photographed by undercover photojournalists at this SWANKY New York party, with a sequined woman on her arm & a fat bandito MUSTACHE on her face.
Scandalous! I trust the itwaslost.org treasury secretary will fully understand appropriating the entire spring budget to pay the paparazzi who snapped this shot.
When I was talking to the documentarian (mentioned below) who is just finishing her movie on the Beard Club, I asked if she met any bearded ladies. She said Jennifer Miller (pictured in an artsy Leibovitzy rendering to the right) of New York City's Circus Amok, is the most famous living bearded lady. More on this to come.
In the meantime, watch this classic Christian Rock from the 1980s.
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