All right all you fellow bearded folkies! Here's your chance to do something really new, totally original, potentially HUGE, and just subversive enough to appeal to your folkie sensibilities.

My friend and pickin' buddy Jerry has put together a website called "The National Beard Registry". The idea is to celebrate beardedness by collecting photos of and a little data about beards and the people who wear them. As of this posting (12/04/02) the site is brand new so you will have the added benefit of being a "founding member" if you act quickly. In fact, it's so new that my own registration isn't yet active and Jerry's doesn't yet have a photo. The only photos that are on it so far are some folks whose pics Jerry took at the Fall LEAF Festival in Black Mountain, NC.

All you need to register online is a name and a jpg. There are a handful of the usual questions, and if you're uncomfortable with any of them just tell lies. In case you have trouble navigating the web-page (like I did the first time I visited it) the doves are links. Here's a link to the site: National Beard Registry.

Also, in case anyone is put off by the term "national", here's a quote from webmaster Jerry:

The National Beard Registry is based in America but the word National in its name applies to any nation. International boundaries are only in our minds. Conformity is an international malaise. Beards are beautiful on every continent.

That's all ya need to know. Hope to see your picture there soon.

And for you cleanshaven guys out there, this should provide you with a compelling reason to throw that razor in the trash can.

Bruce