By Jayne Caron, ’10, The Lens Section Editor

If you were not blessed to have the chance to hang out with junior Jules Cantor this summer, you would have missed out on a spectacle rivaling the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Yes, in order of significance, Cantor’s chin strap (See editor’s note below) fell somewhere between the Pharos of Alexandria and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Born out of a desperate desire to end a six-game baseball losing streak, and then continuing to grow and grow to grotesque new heights, Cantor successfully resurrected Joey Beyersdorfer, ’08, into the body of a red-haired, baseball-playing junior.  While the rest of CCDS dispersed this summer to attend various academic, medical, and scientific programs throughout the country, senior Alex Toltzis was attempting to convince Cantor to attend the largest gathering of chin straps in Cincinnati.  Unfortunately, Cantor was unable to go.  Even more unfortunately, Mrs. Cantor was not as enthralled by her son’s chin strap as others were.   So, if you see Jules walking down the halls now, you will note that his face is sadly bare.

However, do not despair; there is still plenty of facial hair at CCDS to keep us chin-watching.  If you have the chance, check out senior Matt Lesser’s winning-streak beard that he has been growing for about three weeks now.  Although nowhere near the gingery goodness of Cantor’s chin strap (who could rival such alliteration?), Matt Lesser’s blondish-brownish beard has merits of its own.

Although not everyone is in agreement, CCDS students are generally pleased by this disturbing trend of growing facial hair.  Although Toltzis says “I do not support their growing popularity in the CCDS community,” others believe Toltzis is just a communist who hates fun.  After all, facial hair brings us back to the good, old simpler days of primates, Neanderthals and other early stages of evolution.  Who wouldn’t support that?

Photo By Ilana Habib

[Editor’s Note: According to urbandictionary.com a chin strap is “a patch of hair grown on the chin that looks like a chin strap for a football helmet, similar to a goatee.” ]