Presented to: Ardis Parshall
For: "Beards" on Keepapitchinin
The Association for Mormon Letters presents Ardis Parshall its first award for a blog post, for her three-part "Best Beards" posts on her independent blog, Keepapitchinin.
Complete with photographic illustrations, Ardis presents Mormon men from the past with their splendid (or at least interesting) beards, and invites readers to judge the best. With titles like “chin curtains,” featuring Jedediah Grant’s beard among others; “The Beard You'd Least Like to Meet in a Dark Alley,” including Porter Rockwell’s; and “Subbing for Santa,” with Orson Pratt’s remarkable showing, Ardis Parshall not only invites her readers to vote for the best beards, but subsequently supplies the winners with acceptance speeches. Orson Pratt, the ultimate “Best Beard” winner, says, “Oh, shucks, it wasn’t something I set out to do. My chin was as clean-shaven as the next missionary’s when I went on my first mission, and when I was called to the Quorum. But like most young men, I indulged myself once by not shaving during a fishing trip, and, well, I discovered I could grow whiskers purty fast and purty thick…”
Ardis Parshall is a gift to Mormon community and particularly to the community of LDS blogs called the Bloggernacle. Keepapitchinin is consistently well-researched, with exceptional attention to detail, often poignant, and full of Ardis’s sharp wit and bountiful imagination.