Jim of Parkway Rest Stop is musing about the how & why of beard-growing.

As a Facial-Hair-Enhanced-American, I can relate.

I've had my crumb-catcher since about 30-seconds after I was discharged from the Navy, so some people might suspect that I grew it simply because I could.

Mostly true.

However, the other part of my justification is that I have a long, thin face. Combined with a hairline that's been abnormally high since I was a kid (and is slowly but surely receding), there was simply too much skin showing. I desperately needed to bring some balance to my visage.

Now, as to Jim's observation on upkeep:

In most cases, one has to regularly trim that sucker, which involves not only a razor, but also scissors and a fair amount of time. To me, that sounds like more of a pain in the ass than a daily three-minute zip, zip zip with a Mach III.

Yeah, not doing a full-face shave WAS part of the attraction. At the rate my whiskers grow, 24 hours does NOT allow enough stubble to grow for my razor to get a good grip on the tiny hairs. Result - a patchy-looking shave and plenty of irritated skin.

Now, I *do* shave my throat and take out any strays along the edges (see Little Joe's quote in the right sidebar), but I only do so every 48 hours, which lets me whack the shadow right down to the follicle every time without irritation. I can live with that. No one accuses me of "not shaving", because - Hey! I have a beard!

As for trimming the beard itself, that's only a little scissoring every couple weeks, and a 15-minute run-through with the electric beard-trimmer about once a month. Timewise, I think I come out ahead.

However, I admit that beards aren't for everyone. If yours is thin & patchy, then you're better off riding the razor-pony. But if you've got the caveman genetics to pull it off, then it's a pretty good deal.

Not to mention the fact that some women find beards VERY attractive. I've had plenty of women who were complete strangers give in to the temptation to touch it.

You naked-faced guys will never know the pleasure.

Posted by: Harvey at 03:04 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 397 words, total size 2 kb.

Jen of Jennifer's History & Stuff asks an interesting question:

Can someone (like say an older white Christian male) who uses the phrase "Jew him down" still be considered a generally decent person? Or should we assume he knows darn well that what he's saying is anti-Semitic?

I'd assume it was a matter of habit & social isolation.

Back in my Navy days, an otherwise charming Southern boy was discussing some improvisational repairs to an automobile and described it as being "nigger-rigged".

While chatting with a group that was predominantly black.

One of the gentlemen of color asked him incredulously to repeat what he just said.

And he said it again, with an innocent and puzzled look on his face, perhaps a little surprised that his friends weren't familiar with what he considered a common colloquialism.

One of the black guys defused the situation by suggesting that perhaps he meant "jury-rigged".

Right about then, the light dawned on this poor kid, who blushed and apologized profusely. Everyone accepted and the conversation moved on. Apparently, he always just thought of the phrase as its meaning and never contemplated the implied racial slur.

Sometimes people use words like that.

Anyway, is "Jew him down" really that offensive? I've always assumed it meant "to negotiate an exceptionally good price" - a compliment to the statistical propensity Jews have for business success.

Apparently some people think it means something else. Damned if I know what.

And at the extreme end, some people see racism and discrimination in even the most innocent sentences, the PC equivalent of Guatemalans seeing the Virgin Mary in every tortilla.

Personally, I say give him the benefit of the doubt. Until and unless he displays a pattern of overt racist behavior, just assume that it's a figure of speech and don't take it personally.

And ain't it just mighty white of me to be so open-minded?

Posted by: Harvey at 10:36 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 330 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Harvey, anything said today is offensive to SOMEONE.

Posted by: Ogre at October 07, 2005 11:55 AM (/k+l4)

2 I try to keep most of my writing "Harvey'ed down" so that short bus riders, and you, will be able to understand what's going on.

Posted by: That 1 Guy at October 07, 2005 02:23 PM (uzmnT)

3 T1G - :-P

Posted by: Harvey at October 07, 2005 04:04 PM (ubhj8)

4 I always thought it was 'jerry-rigged'

Posted by: GaMongrel at October 07, 2005 08:41 PM (lZ+tR)

5 Well, being a southwesterner I watched the good ol' boys try to adjust from nigger rig to afro engineered.

Posted by: Peter at October 07, 2005 11:55 PM (a9Muw)

6 GaMongrel - Now you're either insulting Germans or people named Jerry :-)

Posted by: Harvey at October 08, 2005 09:26 AM (ubhj8)

7 Well, I've always said "jerry-rigged" too...I had no idea what "jury-rigged" meant!

Posted by: Susie at October 08, 2005 02:02 PM (a0oF7)

8 I've always said jury rigged. I just never use what we call 'the evil n word'. But I would never talk about someone being 'jewed down' either. Its just offensive. Period.

Posted by: Bou at October 08, 2005 08:48 PM (5JHEt)

9 Actually, it could easily be a corruption of "Jawed down" the same as a jaw harp was corrupted into jews harp. To jaw someone down is to talk down the price. Here's one that almost no one thinks about: gypped. No DOUBT that it is derisive, but is it offensive anymore?

Posted by: Phelps at October 09, 2005 05:15 AM (YGoqm)

10 Well...he does live up in northern Wisconsin during the warmer months (and grew up there), but he lives in Florida the rest of the year. Somehow I think he knows better. Plus there was the part where 20 minutes later he said something about "the Jews" owning something on the lakefront. I was in a different conversation in the back of the vehicle and didn't catch what THAT was all about.

Posted by: Jennifer at October 10, 2005 09:40 PM (K5F0g)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Since I poked Serenity in the eye over a couple small technical details (minor spoilers at the link), I thought I'd share some of my other common complaints about TV & movie unrealism (which are not directed specifically at Firefly):

Control panels full of randomly blinking lights - 99% of these lights should be either on or off to tell you their status. As a general design rule, blinking is usually reserved for an abnormal status. The only exceptions I know for this are hard drive or modem activity.

Control panels should also have their buttons, switches, & lights LABELED - When was the last time you saw an unlabeled button on ANY electronic device? Your radio, your VCR, and even your remote control have crap written all over them... yet you're just supposed to GUESS which button to push on a nuclear reactor?

Factories or basements with leaky steam pipes - When you have a steam leak, you call the mechanic and FIX it (having worked in a ship's engine room for 4 years, I speak from experience).

Pipes ALSO have labels.

Super-fast computers that display new lines of text on their screens s-l-o-w-l-y, one letter at a time in green monochrome with a DOS caret at the front of the line - Have these writers even TOUCHED a computer built within the last 20 years?

And don't even get me started on the big blinking "ACCESS DENIED" warning. (Swordfish was especially bad with this one).

Yes, I know it's just an exercise of artistic license to make a plot point and that I should try to relax.

I'm just saying that I notice it.

Posted by: Harvey at 08:25 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 280 words, total size 2 kb.