The New York Times recently shared their thoughts on bacon and manliness (with a little commentary on facial hair mixed in for good measure):

I've seen more mustached lips on the street and more bacon-wrapped-fried anythings on menus than ever before. And the Internet tells me that facial hair and pig fat is manly, so it's possible we are. But, I don't think any of that stuff makes you manly. A mustache, on most of you, makes you look like the kind of guy who has a suspicious locked room in his basement, and bacon in every meal makes you a gluttonous fatso. Both of these things seem kinda dumb to me, along with all the other nonsense guys are taking part in because it helps them hark back to the days of manly men.

I've long thought that bacon has become fetishized by self-esteem-deprived men looking to Prove Themselves in ways their job, environment, and general scent just doesn't otherwise allow.  Then again, I'm a vegetarian who is constantly cooking up veggie bacon in pans full of peanut oil because that shit tastes so good.  So maybe chowing down at the Bacon Bacon food truck is less about compensating for a cushy job, a college education, and growing up with loving parents and more about taste?

Plus, there's some decidedly questionable sexual benefits to having facial hair.

[Photo by eb78]