Night Moves

"I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Ain’t it funny how the night moves
When you just don’t seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves"

--Bob Seger

"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man."

--William Shakespeare

As I stated on Sunday, Chris at Covered In Oil has been considering shaving off the playoff beard before his girlfriend arrives in Toronto on Wednesday. As he and I and the Edmonton Oilers are now 3-0 with our playoff beard mojo, howls of protest have gone up across the Oiloglosphere. Inspired by the comment from Dave that, "Someone with more time and a much better handle on PhotoShop should really stick a ZZ-Top jaw-carpet on Chris' face and post a link to it here," I have gone about creating some collages of the greatest beards in history. My hope is that in seeing how far he has already come, and how close to immortality he is, Chris will change his mind and keep the bushy goodness.

True story: after the game tonight I went to McDonalds, in order to get some fuel for the project. On the way home from the Calgary Trail--sorry, "Gateway Boulevard"--McRaunchys, I turned on the radio. Sure shit, "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top was playing. Whoa. That's a little eery, I thought. Could this be a sign? After that song ended, it went right into, "Night Moves" by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. Two songs in a row by barbate geniuses, I thought. Nah, it has to be a coincidence. But if the next one is by a bearded artist or group, I am going to flip out. So what happens as I am getting out of the car? "Touch of Gray" by the Grateful Dead comes on the radio. I'm not making this stuff up. I can't possibly make this stuff up. It was like a shooting star across the Oilers Universe. If I wasn't completely convinced about the beard mojo before, I am now.


This first group are a shaggy bunch of famous bad guys, losers, and ne'er-do-wells. We definitely don't want to emulate anyone in this group.

The second group are a collection of hirsute heavyweights. This is more like it.

A meeting of shaggy giants. Will Chris join this group, or align himself with those who have misused the power of the bristle?