Elf Sternberg

I cast a wide net looking for places where I might buy my beloved Merkur blades without having to drive all the way to the other end of King County. One of the popular suggestions was a place called "Under U 4 Men," which sold all of two things: underwear, and "manscaping supplies." According to at least one rave review, they had a fabulous selection of shaving supplies.

And indeed they did. They nice young man with the practiced accent pointed me to a lovely shelf with $35 badger brushes, an incredible array of traditional shaving soaps, and $100 cartridge handles. But not a single safety razor blade in the entire place. I asked about that. He said, "Well, if we had the kind of clientele who used that sort of thing, we would carry it, hmm?"

I can see I'm not the only one who's paranoid about the worldwide production of safety blades ceasing; only Merkur sells their blades in packs of 200. Not even Feather, another leading brand, does that.

Compared to any other shaving experience, the simple safety razor is still my favorite: fewest nicks, least amount of burn, closest shave. It's truly a manly art that liberals can enjoy; after all, the only waste is a fully recyclable piece of steel.

Maybe I will drive out to Bellevue tomorrow.

Following the advice of fallenpegasus and finding myself in Bellevue the other day, I stopped by the new Lush outlet and pick up some Razorantium. The stuff was pricey, $17.95 for an 8 oz. tub, but that's not the most insane price I've ever paid for a three-month shaving cream supply (that would be Zhir, at $38 if buying both the pre-shave oil and the shave soap).

I tried it out this evening and discovered that it is worth absolutely every penny. I put on a thin layer, waited only a minute, and then shaved with my Merkur single-blade razor. I was supposed to wait three. It didn't seem to matter. The blade moved smoothly through the hairs with only one pass. I had to be careful; Razorantium is thick and clogs up the razor very quickly, unlike Burma-Shave glycerin soaps.

There was no razor burn afterward. I was completely stunned. I always have razor burn, but not this time. My face was smooth and soothed and did not hurt. I think I'll be buying more of this stuff in the future.

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In an unrelated issue, I stopped by Wonderworld Comics to pick up a Kimba the White Lion video for the girls to watch, and while I was there I thumbed through the Wolverine comic (now in its 33rd issue). When did that happen? Even more boggling, Sebastian Shaw (former leader of the Hellfire Club and lover of Emma Frost, part of the League of Mutants, a sublegal group dedicated to taking over the world) is now in charge of SHEILD (WTF!?!?) and Mystique works for him (WTF!?!?²).

Damn. Another universe has completely slipped me by.