As prostate cancer is an issue that hits close to home for my family, I was excited to learn that one of my co-workers is participating in Movember.
What exactly is Movember? I’ll leave that to the pros on theMovember site:
The idea for Movember was sparked in 2003 over a few beers in Melbourne, Australia. The guys behind it joked about 80s fashion and decided it was time to bring the moustache back. In order to justify their Mos (Australian slang for moustache), they used their new looks to raise money for prostate cancer research… never dreaming that facial hair would ultimately lead to a global movement that would get men talking about a taboo subject – their health.
A Mo Bro starts Movember – the month formerly known as November – clean shaven, and grows a moustache all month long, garnering support from friends and family in the form of donations. What’s more, a Mo Bro is a walking billboard for the cause as his new look opens the door for him to talk about prostate cancer – making the moustache a symbol, much like the pink ribbon is for breast cancer. Each Movember culminates in a Gala Partè in major cities around the globe where Mo Bros dress up to match their Mo, channeling the likes of Tom Selleck, Ghandi and Ron Burgundy, vying for the ultimate accolade: Man of Movember.
In honour of Movember, and those generously participating, here’s my list of 10 Literary Moustaches:
The evil criminal genius, Dr. Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu is a fictional character featured in a series of novels by English author Sax Rohmer in the early part of the 20th century. Need I say he inspired the Fu Manchu style moustache?
German philosopher and philologist, Friedrich Nietzsche sported a walrus moustache.
The exhibition which runs until March 14, 2010 includes personal correspondence, the autograph manuscript of Lady Susan, the unfinished manuscript of The Watsons, first and early editions of Austen’s novels and drawings of people, places and events of significance to the author and the times she lived in.
While only a small number of Austen’s personal letters have survived, what does exist offers insight into her personality, her wit and her relationships. For example, one letter to her 8-year-old niece is written with all words backwards - a fun puzzle for any child to receive.
No need to avert your eyes. Stephen King’s appearance in this month’s edition of Playboy is of a literary rather than an anatomical nature.
Departing from his traditional role as an author, King appears as a poet with his work The Bone Church.
Told by a man in the bar, the poem is the tale of a doomed jungle expedition.
If you want to hear, buy me another drink.
(Ah, this is slop—slop, I tell you—but never mind; what isn’t?)
There were thirty-two of us went into that greensore
and only three who rose above it.
We were thirty days in the green, and only one of us came out.
Three rose above the green, three made it to the top:
It’s a good month for King fans on the whole. In addition to the Playboy poem, New Yorker’s November 9 issue features Premium Harmony, a new short story by the bestselling author and King’s latest novel, Under the Dome - a 900-page epic - will be published on November 10.
The movie starring George Clooney (swoon), Ewan McGregor (another swoon), Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges is more of a fictional comedy than Ronson’s mostly non-fiction book which is said to contain some potentially damaging information about the U.S. Army. But come on, we all know that playing songs from Barney & Friends is sheer torture. That’s hardly a state secret.
Ronson hopes that The Men Who Stare at Goats gets people thinking about what goes on behind closed army doors. He says, “It’s all the craziest stuff that’s true. I mean, there actually were a hundred de-bleated goats smuggled into the Special Forces Command Center at Fort Bragg, N.C.; there’s a weapon called the Predator that’s much like the one in the movie; and there’s a connection between the U.S. military and the mass suicide of a cult from San Diego. ”
Proulx’s papers include an early draft of the cowboy romance when it had working titles such as Bulldust Mountain and Swill-Swallow Mountain along with:
“… 4,200 pages of short stories, essays, poems and screenplays; 145 pages of preparatory notes and research and three original notebooks with holograph draft ideas; more than 1,060 pages of holograph diary; more than 10,200 pages of typescript, much of it with holograph revisions and corrections, 2,100 galley proofs, and 1,855 pages of other related materials. Correspondence, including email totals more than 4,500 pages.”
Bringing her rural tales to the big city generates “an odd sense of balance” says the 74-year-old author.
Economics and I do not mix. The New York Times tells me that economist John Maynard Keynes is back in fashion again. Maynard Keynes preached that government intervention could spark a sluggish economy - eg he invented the bail out so the folks at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley should be mighty grateful for his efforts.
The only thing I know about Maynard Keynes is he’s mentioned in the Deacon Blue song, A Ship Called Dignity so I’m probably not an expert on economic theory although my knowledge of popular culture trivia is second to none. First editions of Maynard Keynes’ most famous book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, would make a very nice bonus for someone at AIG or one of those other slimeball banks.
1. The Scots Musical Museum by James Johnson - $8,500
The pivotal collection of Scottish music compiled by Johnson with contributions, both musically and editorially, by Robert Burns - published in 1792 as four volumes, this bound in two. The collection gained international recognition after arrangements by Haydn and Beethoven.
2. Oeuvres by Pierre de Ronsard - $7,435
The complete first volume of the first edition of Ronsard’s poetry; bound with an incomplete copy of the second volume and the preliminary matter of the third volume. Ronsard (1524-1585) was known as the Prince of Poets in his native France. Published in Paris in 1560.
3. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - $6,500
A signed second edition (printed in 1956) of Tolkien’s fantasy masterpiece.
4. The Bonefish Brigade by Zane Grey - $5,000
Privately published in 1922, this was a special edition with “Christmas Greetings” and a candle design printed in red and green on the upper cover. This was Zane Grey’s personal copy with his library blind-stamp on the front free endpaper.
5. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer; Frank Lloyd Wright; Yukio Futagawa - $4,500
The complete 12-volume monograph of Wright’s work. Published 1984, first American edition.
Lionel Davidson, the British thriller writer, died on 21 October at 87 years old. He might be best known for Kolymsky Heights (1994) but he wrote seven other novels, including Night of Wenceslas (1961).
His last novel, “Kolymsky Heights,” involves an American agent’s quest for a secret locked in the Siberian ice. Its unusual protagonist, Johnny Porter, is a linguist, a scholar, a spy and a Gitxsan Indian from British Columbia.
Reviewing “Kolymsky Heights” in The New York Times Book Review, James Carroll called it “an icy marvel of invention,” adding: “It is written with the panache of a master and with the wide-eyed exhilaration of an adventurer in the grip of discovery. Mr. Davidson has not only rescued one of the most familiar narrative forms of the era, the spy thriller; he has also renewed it.”
In the world of famous sports people, former tennis player Andre Agassi admits in his autobiography he took crystal meth. That explains some of his awful hair styles.
I remember feeling intensely sad the first time I heard the story about Elena Desserich - the five-year-old girl diagnosed with brain cancer who hid hundreds of little notes around the house for her parents, Brooke and Keith, to discover after she had died.
This sad story and the notes have been turned into a book called Notes Left Behind and the Today Show focused on the Desserichs this morning. Notes Left Behind was originally self-published but has since been picked up by the publisher, William Morrow.
Here is an excerpt from the book…(I can’t read it - I have two young daughters.)
By the way, all proceeds from this book go towards the family’s cancer foundation.
Sarah Palin is all the rage again with the publication of Going Rogue coming up soon. I won’t be reading this particular memoir but many people will - it is already a bestseller on Amazon.com on pre-orders alone. But did you know that Palin is already a published author…sort of?
Yes…. Palin wrote the foreword for Wild Wonderful Alaska Seafood by Steve Lee and Sue Ashworth, and published by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. I think I’d actually prefer to read Wild Wonderful Alaska Seafood than Going Rogue. I am quite sure the seafood in Alaska is really wild and wonderful.
The website of the Alaska Seaford Marketing Institute offers a host of fun facts, including that the average salmon boat is 37 ft. long and giant vegetables are common in Alaska due to the extremely long days in summer. Alaska has grown a record cabbage weighing in at 94 pounds.
I’d pay good money to see a 94-pound cabbage. How did I get from Sarah Palin to giant cabbages?
The Bookseller reports on the sudden death of Cornwall-based fantasy author Louise Cooper from a brain haemorrhage at the age of 57. She created the Seahorses and The Mermaids Curse series and wrote more than 80 books.
Her own website describes how she hit the big time…..
My ‘big break’ came in 1984, when my agent of the time persuaded me to expand and re-write my second book, Lord of No Time, into a trilogy - The Time Master. To my delight, and with the boost of three stunning Robert Gould covers, Time Master was a great success on both sides of the Atlantic, and in the next 10 years I wrote and published 15 more fantasy novels, including the Indigo series and a ‘prequel’ and sequel to Time Master.
Fifty seven is no age at all. She appeared to be a person who lived her two dreams - to write books and live in Cornwall. What a pair of fine things to aspire to do.
The only thing I know about Maynard Keynes is he’s mentioned in the Deacon Blue song, 
3. 
I remember feeling intensely sad the first time I heard the story about Elena Desserich - the five-year-old girl diagnosed with brain cancer who hid hundreds of little notes around the house for her parents, Brooke and Keith, to discover after she had died.
Sarah Palin is all the rage again with the publication of Going Rogue coming up soon. I won’t be reading this particular memoir but many people will - it is already a bestseller on Amazon.com on pre-orders alone. But did you know that Palin is already a published author…sort of?