"Beard" = 'cover story' without gay/straight context

[Dave Wilton]

It was the season four episode, in Act II of "Fear, Itself." The script is
dated 8 Oct 1999. The episode was first broadcast 28 Oct 1999:

"BUFFY  Oh, he was such a pain! Twelve years old and I can't go
trick-or-treating by myself.

"[They're both laughing now.]

"JOYCE  He wanted to keep you safe.

"BUFFY  Nuh-uh, he wanted the candy. I was only the beard."

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net
  http://www.wilton.net


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Jim Parish
> Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 9:35 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Beard" = 'cover story' without gay/straight context
>
>
> If I recall correctly, the word was used in a non(gay/straight) context in
> an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" some years back; I'm
> away from home
> and can't check at the moment, but it was a Halloween episode,
> either season
> two (which would make it 1997) or season four (1999). In the
> scene, Buffy's
> mother commented that her (Buffy's) father used to love taking her
> trick-or-treating; Buffy said something to the effect that he loved the
> candy, and she was just the beard. (I'll be home in a couple of days; I'll
> be able to give more precise information then.)
>
> Jim Parish
>
> Quoting "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> > Subject:      "Beard" = 'cover story' without gay/straight context
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------
> >
> > Heard on NPR's "Le Show", 2004-12-19, song titled "Christmas in
> Oblivion"
> > about Bernie Kerik*: "A nanny would make a good beard".
> Referring to Kerik's
> > apparent invention of an undocumented nanny as an explanation
> for his sudden
> > departure from prominence, preferable to the revelation that he
> had risen in
> > the first place merely as an incompetent and ethically impaired
> friend of
> > the boss.
> >
> > *Dragon NaturallySpeaking initially misrecognized this name as "dirty
> > character". Artificial intelligence?
> >
> > -- Mark A. Mandel
> > [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
> >
>
>
>
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