Photograph: Kelly Gillin/AP Ever made a promise you can't stick to? Well you might - and so might the man on the left - but in one important respect he has been a man of his word. In September 2001, Gary Weddle said he would not shave again until Osama bin Laden was either caught or killed. Five years later, he still has the beard. And it's more than a foot long and greying.
Via Talking Points Memo and CNN comes an interview with his local newspaper, the Wenatchee World of Wenatchee in the north-west United States (a city that claims to be the apple capital of the world for its many nearby orchards). He says he expected Bin Laden to be caught within a month or two of fighting.
Some readers may detect a certain irony in that Mr Wedder's method of remembering the devastation of 9/11 has led to him acquiring one of Bin Laden's most distinctive physical characteristics - a very long beard. He tells the paper his facial hair seems to make some people scared of him.
Small children stare. They're very curious. I'll wave to them and they will usually smile. But when I'm alone in a grocery store aisle, people will turn and go the other way.
It is a complex business, growing a beard post-9/11.
