DEAR ABBY: In regard to the letter about the man who shaved his mustache and his wife didn't even notice that it was gone.
My dad wore a "handlebar" mustache for almost 25 years. It was his most distinctive feature. One day when he walked out of the bathroom, my sister and I (both teen-agers) screamed in surprise, and then started laughing. He had shaved off his mustache with no forewarning at all!
However, when my mom first saw him, she didn't notice! She knew there was something "different" about him, but didn't realize it was the absence of the mustache that had been there for so many years. (She said it looked like someone had punched him in the face.)
Thank you, Abby, and God bless. -- STILL LAUGHING IN IDAHO
DEAR LAUGHING: That reminds me of an experience I had many years ago when my husband grew a beard. His was always neatly trimmed. One day out of the blue, he said, "Don't you notice something different about me?"
I replied, "No, but you look younger. Why do you ask?"
"I shaved my beard off," he said.
Well, he grew it back within a matter of months, and as it grayed along with the hair on his head, he looked like a French nobleman. He still has it, and even though his mother calls him "the rabbi," I love it.