The Daily Beast has a long story on the New New Goatee. I make a small appearance on page 2:
Another take on the New New Goatee: It is a symbol of bloggy, stay-at-home cred. “I wish I were part of some grand sociological trend,” says Jonah Goldberg, the goateed conservative pundit and frequent blogger on National Review Online. “But I mostly do it because I work from home and it makes it easier to go very long periods of time with shaving.”
Now Bryan Curtis, the author, seems like a good guy and we talked for quite a while about all manner of things, including the differences between goatees and Van Dykes, the less than wholesome nicknames for this style of facial hair and, of course, the scurge of pogonophobia. I do not mind that of all the copious wisdom I offered, this is all that made it into the article. But! I would like to make it clear this “take” on the NNG is entirely imposed by the author. My own quote contradicts the suggestion that I have a goatee to symbolize my “bloggy, stay-at-home cred.”
I think my bloggy cred — no doubt extremely valuable in the back streets of Old Saybrook, the halls of power in Baku, and the seats of high finance in N’Djamena — is well established already.
Besides, the fact that I talk to my couch, wear a tinfoil codpiece over my official blogger pajamas, and eat bricks of cheddar like candy bars is surely a more fitting symbol of my stay-at-home bloggy cred. But he didn’t ask about that.