Nate Bowler Responds!

More than six months of mysterious silence have left many NOML fans disenchanted with this once reverend league. When the 2006 NOML Moustache Growing Championship ended in scandal, both competitors curiously absented themselves from a fan base that was in need of healing. While the NOML may have suffered irreparable damage, the Bowler brothers do seem to be taking the primary steps toward repairing their fallen reputations. Moustache Times reporter Don Flan recently sat down with Nate Bowler for an exclusive interview, in the NOML c0-founder's first public statement since early September. Editor's note: this is the first part of a two-part piece.

Moustache Times: First off, how are you feeling?
Nate Bowler: Fine, Don, fine. I'm doing much better, thank you.
MT: I think we can all agree that the 2006 NOML Moustache Growing Championship did not end as many may have hoped or expected.
NB: True. It's unfortunate. Often we wish we could change the past, but, of course, we can't. What's done is done. There's no going back. It's hard not to think about it, admittedly. Hard not to wish it.
MT: You are the 2006 NOML Moustache Growing Champion. Is it tainted?
NB: I worked hard for that title, but I would be lying if I said I'm not disappointed, disappointed in myself and my arch-rival, Jeff Bowler.
MT: Arch-rival and brother.
NB: That too, yes.
MT: And you had no idea that he was going to do what he did? You had no idea that he was going to shave his moustache, unannounced, and therefore bring inevitable scandal to the NOML?
NB: No idea, no. Honestly, I didn't even notice at first. I don't know if that is a testament to the quality and thickness of his moustache, or if I was too caught up in my own moustache growing.
MT: Why didn't you speak up at once? What made you, as many said at the time, turn your back on the NOML, your fans, and by some accounts, your own friends and family?
NB: I suppose you could say that the intensity got to me. With all the hype and pressure, put on me by both the media and myself, I suppose that I just couldn't face the moustache community after things played out the way they did.
MT: Do you regret that now? Is there a sense of shame?
NB: Most definitely. While Jeff Bowler shamed the contest, it was me, the winner, who carries certain responsibilites, who really let the fan base down. It was me who shamed the title, Don. Looking back, I should have held my award high. Of course, I never did receive my award, a six-pack of non-American macrobrewed beer. But that's beside the point. The NOML Moustache Growing Championship is nothing to sneeze at, even though it was the first year. If, God willing, the NOML, and indeed the world, can get past this, I vow never to take my fans, the NOML or my moustache for granted ever again.
MT: And speaking of which, I notice you are bare-lipping it these days. Where is your moustache?

Part two of this two-part interview will be posted tomorrow.