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 the Movember 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.
- Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.
- Salvador Dali. Not only did he have a moustache, he wrote Moustaches Radar, a book dedicated to moustaches!
- René Goscinny’s comic book characters Asterix and Obelix.
- Thomson and Thompson from The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian artist, artist Hergé.
- Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Arthur Conan Doyle.
- Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
- Popeye’s credit seeking, burger loving pal, J. Wellington Wimpy.
- And you thought I forgot the most obvious one didn’t you?! Of course not…Mark Twain!
I’m not a huge fan of Barbie nor of 
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?