bigotes: fieldnotes

just a snippet from the other night.

a crowd of archaeologists (professors and graduate students) gather at a bar. they order a few pitchers of beer and chat in the patio area which overlooks a busy dc street. those at the far end of the table barely notice when JR wanders in from the street and takes the open chair next to his advisor. from down here, nothing looks amiss. and then dan (the advisor says):

"What happened?[and with barely a pause for breath] I don't like it"

JR replies:

"It was a mistake and a tragedy"

Alas, JR's clippers were broken and he unknowingly shaved a stripe into his beard while trying to trim it. So the whole thing had to go.

Now, as you may guess, he's a rather light haired italian man, so from the far end of the table in the dim evening hour, the beard's absence was barely visible. But Dan, given his proximity, continued to discuss the problems with beardless archaeologists (and i'm not touching that gendered dynamic).

I questioned JR and he said in the last few years he had only shaved for work, never had a goatee, and would certainly grow the beard back as soon as possible. he just didn't feel like himself without it.