[17 Days to Go] Mustache, Man. Mustache.

mus⋅tache [muhs-tash, muh-stash]

-noun

1. the hair growing on the upper lip

2. such hair on men, allowed to grow without shaving, and often trimmed in any of various shapes

3. hairs or bristles growing near the mouth of a mammal

-adjective

1. extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration

1a. informal: extremely good; excellent

Sometimes a word enters the lexicon and it cannot be ignored. It catches on like wildfire and spreads quicker than that virus in Season 3 of 24. The word galvanizes itself in to popular culture and becomes a zeitgeist of the times. In the 80's we had 'rad'. In the 90's it was 'sweet, bro'. In 2003, Old School brought back the 'awesome'. And we can thank How I Met Your Mother for sustaining it.

In 2009, as we prepare yet again to make another glacial shift into a new decade, we bring you 'mustache'. It connotes the same as the examples given above. Here's an example of its everyday use:

Not Me: Dude, I hooked up with the hottest chick last night.

Me: Mustache, Dude. Mustache.

Not Me: Yeah... but she gave me crabs.

Me: Ouch. Not mustache.

Mustache, dude. It's gonna be a thing. Fear not, for it too can be applied to sports and with non-chauvinistic examples no less! Let's take a look at some memorable Michigan plays from the recent past...

We certainly all remember when Alan Branch concussed Penn State's Anthony Morelli in 2006. That play, oh man, that was mustache. Eat it, Penn State:

And, as long as we are on the topic of dominating Penn State, remember the year before when Manningham ended their perfect season and dashed their national title hopes? Yeah, that was mustache too.

Or the 2004 Michigan State game? Sorry Little Brother, you thought you had that one in the bag. Then, well, Braylon Edwards called upon the mighty power of his mustache…

…and this happened:

Mustache.

Boom. Knowledge dropped. Consider yourself educated. Now add that to your vernacular employ the empowerment of the 'stache in your Michigan argot. This fall, and in particular on September 5th, when Brandon Minor is trucking over fools - or when Tate is slicing up Western's secondary like Christian Troy in Nip/Tuck - you know the words to utter from your mustached mouth: Fucking mustache, man.

[Keep the photos coming; send us your progress to mustaches4michigan@gmail.com. The next roundup is this coming Friday.]