The Magnificent Moustache Malarkey
Day 9: Behold! Compositional differences between these photographs and previous B.B.B. II sets have a twofold origin: ein) my mother is several inches shorter than my father & zwei) the switch from my father's digital camera to the charmingly analog X-700, 1981's "Camera of the Year"!





Note the skin irritation caused by shaving.







And now I wait for Mrs. Skeeter, Esq. to leave a hurtful comment.



But I'm buoyed by the fact that she's just trying to save me from what she sees as a life-defining mistake.



These photographs are from yesterday, M.M.M. Day 8. Turnaround from shutter snap to Secret Base publication?

Fancy pants digital camera: nine days and counting.
Old-fashioned film camera: twenty-four hours!

Because of my father's refusal to transmit to me via email the photographs from B.B.B. II Day 128, the eve of ¡Cinco de Moustache! (a.k.a. M.M.M. Day 1), I cannot show you the beard progressively coming off. However, since the decision was taken to illustrate the folly of the "tame" beard everyone else advocated compared to the triumph of the Bonanza's "wild" beard, it became impossible to reenact the "Golden Age of Muttonchops," which was itself the principal motivation for shaving the beard in stages. So, the main point of those photographs now is to see the beard at its height, a full fortnight after the previous batch of beard photos, and I hope to bring those images to you soon (and to that end will continue pestering my feckless father).

There is another matter on which I would beg your input: When the time comes, how shall I remove the moustache? I am debating between two approaches to shaving, inside-to-outside or outside-to-inside. Inside-to-outside who enable me to capture photographs of a Klingon-style dual moustache and a nascent Fu Manchu moustache. Outside-to-inside would let me attempt the chevron moustache and either—but not both—the pencil moustache or the toothbrush moustache. (I know that I lack the fortitude even to attempt the walrus moustache. I'm far too sensitive to/paranoid about the hairs getting into my mouth. Egad!) So, shall I shave inside-to-outside or outside-to-inside? And if outside-to-inside, the pencil or the toothbrush? Thanks, gang!

Program note: Moustache wax experimentation begins upon the morrow.

Magnificent!

Holy Mother Church
Why are the heretics and heathens outside the Church always so surprised by the support Catholics show for the Holy Father? Fatimalink. The Catholic Church is the one true church and the Pope is her shepherd on Earth, elected by the College of Cardinals under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. The Bishop of Rome is the direct apostolic successor of Saint Peter, Catholics could no sooner turn our backs on the Papacy than on Saint Peter himself. Saint Peter thrice denied the Christ, but he remained the rock upon which Our Lord built His Church; likewise, we all doubt the Pope now and again—he is but a man, after all—yet in the end we recognize that he is the Pope, chosen by the Holy Ghost to guide His Church, and we love and support him as he loves and supports Holy Mother Church. Godspeed to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

The Queue
I have at present no plans to read the non-Fleming Bond novels once I've finished Octopussy and The Living Daylights, Fleming's last Bond book and the second to be published posthumously, with the exception of Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, commissioned by Fleming's heirs for publication in 2008, the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth. Curiously, Devil May Care is credited as by "Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming." Writing as? I've read nothing by Faulks, but color me intrigued.

Recently
Ian Fleming, Goldfinger
Ian Fleming, For Your Eyes Only
Ian Fleming, Thunderball

Currently
Ian Fleming, The Spy Who Loved Me

Presently
Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice
Ian Fleming, The Man with the Golden Gun

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Nat King Cole, "Almost Like Being in Love" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)