Date:    Thu, 26 Mar 1998 13:07:40 -0500
<br>From:    Mark Mandel  Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM 
<br>Subject: "beard"
<br>
<br>A usage new to me appears in today's _Wall Street Journal_, p.1, column 4.
<br>
<br>The article's headline and subhead sum up the story:
<br>
<br>        Where the (Old) Boys
<br>        Are: Trying to Find
<br>        Their College Daze
<br>                ***
<br>        Spring Break, Adult Style,
<br>        Can Get Pretty Juvenile;
<br>        Golfing as a Great Excuse
<br>
<br>The usage in question appears right after the first interior subhead:
<br>
<br>        Playing the Golf Game
<br>For many of these post-college spring revelers, golf is the beard -- that is,
<br> ostensibly the main attraction, and a
<br>convenient excuse to spouses and significant others left at home.
<br>
<br>        =====
<br>
<br>Is this usage in fact something new, or just new to me? What is its origin? I
<br> hypothesize the metaphor of a fake beard
<br>used as a cheap and unconvincing disguise, but that's only a guess.
<br>
<br>       Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com
<br>    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 796-0267
<br> 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
<br>           Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/
<br>