Swedish Beards!

In honor of the great state of Minnesota and me being one of the only non-swedes I give you SWEDISH BEARDS!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swedish_heritage_board/tags/beard/

Beard Poems

Found this little picture and thought it was very appropriate for the blog... obviously! ENJOY!

Beard of the Week/Vocabulary Lesson

I've been exposed to some pretty fabulous beards in the past few weeks. A recent trip to the windy city provided at least 3 viable options (if you count a lion as a legitimate contender, and I do). This made the beard of the week selection this time around extremely difficult.

However, in the end I had to go with a truly unique individual and my all-time favorite artist, Vincent Van Gogh. Although it's not his most famous work of art, Van Gogh's self-portrait in the Art Institute of Chicago tells a lot about him, namely that he rocked a pretty sweet ginger beard. And although some fellow bloggers may disagree, I say that gingers need love too. Although it's possible he only painted it in to distract from the hole in his head left by the ear he cut off, in pictures the beard is kind of awesome.

Fun fact:

Stumbled upon the word Pogonophobia in a book the other day. It refers to the fear of beards.

Although at first I thought this was a ridiculous phobia, after doing some research I've got to admit the Pogonophobes have got a point. Key argument: beards are unclean. Just one more reason to keep your beards well-maintained, fellas.

I also found this interesting statistic on a Pogonophobia self-help site:

“In a recent survey, 9 out of 10 women reported preferring clean-shaven men to bearded men.”

Questions? Comments? Concerns?