A Master’s in Pogonics

This week, late-night talk show hosts returned to the airwaves in medias strikus, with David Letterman and Conan O’Brien notably sporting “Strike Beards.” (Craig Ferguson even donned a fake beard for one sketch.)

To address the fascinating intersection of facial hair and labor solidarity, The New Yorker quoted Allan Peterkin, noted pogonologist (aka “beard scholar”) and author of One Thousand Beards: A Cultural History of Facial Hair: “Beards have always marked transitions —”

“What?” interrrupts fellow pogonologist Orange Bear. “A cultural history of beards? What about my encyclopedic and comprehensive study of facial hair?”

He looks distressed.

“Can there really be room in this world for two histories* of facial hair?”

* See here for Mr. Crumpet’s own pogonic history.