Wait a minute...back there did 'Spaw apologize for being weird? Isn't that like winter apologizing for being cold?

Actually, 'Spaw, I know what you mean about shaving. I grew a beard when I moved to Oregon in 1982, because I wanted to look like an Oregonian. Shaved it in 1989 when I did a singing workshop with Susan Osborn and it felt like I was entering a new age. (Little did I know...) During the next few years I used a shaving brush and Kiss My Face soap in a Mexican mug, which probably had lead in it so I didn't drink from it. I really enjoyed that ritual.

The beard came back when I moved back to Oregon in 1991 after getting married. Then after one of our first really bad fights I decided to shave it as a symbol of my determination to be a new person (back when I was still convinced that all the troubles in my marriage were my fault). Only thing is, I had a two-year-old daughter at the time, who spent the next 3 days going around saying "Daddy scared me!" During that time, though, I made my first and only entry onto the stage.

Now, though I live in a place where it's usually between 70 and 85 degrees year round, I'm still hairy, though all the reddish threads among the brown have turned white. And in case you missed it, that was an oblique reference to an old song, thus qualifying this as a musical thread. So there.

Aloha,
Mark