Bearded & Tschorn: A profile on Passion, a tag on Twitter (#WBMC)

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ANCHORAGE -- For weeks I’ve been jawboning about Jack Passion, the 2007 WBMC full beard natural champ, who many feel is the one to beat at this year’s competition of the follicularly endowed. Today, my profile of the whiskered wonder of Walnut Creek appears on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.

I haven’t seen Jack since my arrival in Anchorage, but the members of BTUSA whom I have seen in the coffee shops, hotel elevators and cracking into all-you-can-eat snow crab dinners have been regarded by the non-hirsute with the sort of reverence some reserve for rock stars.

In fact, the bulk of the smooth-faced visitors I’ve encountered since my arrival have turned out to be photographers, videographers and documentary makers hoping to chronicle the event and the contestants.

Which makes me all the happier that I grew a ‘solidarity beard’ (though Mrs. Rage has been anything but pleased) -- it allows me to move amongst them unobtrusively. But I’ve already decided that when I head back to Los Angeles, the beard stays here in the 49th state.

It was fun while it lasted, and I don’t mind the upkeep. What I do mind is being mistaken for Mrs. Rage’s pappy -- which actually happened a few weeks ago.

Also, since the Internet connections have been spotty so far, I’ll be attempting to Twitter competition results and breaking beard news through @LATimesImage with the #WBMC hashtag.

-- Adam Tschorn