.

Oh man. If I thought my in-box was going to melt down yesterday, today was the Towering Inferno minus Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, that back-story about the nephew who cheaped out on the electrical wiring, and Fred Astaire (?!). What I mean to say is, it was extremely hot.

There's a fascinating dynamic that goes on whenever I go the (admittedly) easy route and make fun of the hapless subculture that is the shavegeeks who congregate on shaving forums.

Every time I make fun of these geeks, the next day my in-box is full of joyous, congratulatory emails from well-known wetshaving manufacturers and vendors who clearly spend much of their time biting their tongues and choking back stupefaction in their official dealings with the bottom-most 5% of the shaving goods customer base known more informally as "the guys from the forums".

So basically what I'm saying is, it's not just me.

On the other hand, I have to admit that every time I really go at the geeks with both guns, I hate myself for it later. I feel like Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" after the aversion therapy. I feel sorry for these guys. Hate to admit it but I do. I'm going soft, I think.

So anyway, here's the deal. I can't tell you what this mystery razor I've been using is. No matter what part of the abuse-remorse cycle I may be sashaying through, I will not willfully start another eBay feeding frenzy like I did with the Injector.

But what I can do is give you some clues. In fact, I've already given you one in this entry. Understand that you are not Sherlock (or even Katie) Holmes and I am not Professor (or even Cathy) Moriarty. I am not a criminal who wants to be caught, so I'm not going to keep feeding you ever-bolder clues till you finally grok it. To be honest, I'd love to be able to give you just enough clues to feel better about not telling you what this razor is, but not enough clues so that you actually figure it out. That would be perfect. A Win-Lose. Can I really pull it off?

So anyway, you got your clue. Let's see if you know how to harness the vast power of the Web and solve this Encyclopedia Brown caper. Judging from the perpetual "Where can I find Taylor shaving cream on the Web?" and "Who sells Merkur razors?" questions that serve as the lifeblood of the shavegeek forums, maybe I should give you a link: here you go.