Yes dear friends it is Movember, so time to celebrate with a cartoon of bearded fact proportions. For the uniformed, Movember is a play on Mustache and November. Many non folically challenged men grow a mustache to raise awareness about men’s heath issues and more specifically prostate cancer. That or it is an excuse to grow a cheesy 70’s porn mustache while defending yourself from angry wives/girlfriends by claiming it is for a good cause. In my house there is either shaved or beard. No stache, no goatee, no mutton chops allowed or the wife threatens to cut off all her hair.
Which brings us to today’s hairy fact. Peter the Great of Russia was so enamored with Western Culture that he tried all he could to get the backwards countrymen to do as the Europeans do. So in 1698 he passed a law that taxed any man who wanted to keep his facial hair. This fattened the government coffers so Peter could spend more time away from Russia and caused a majority of poor Russian men to shave. Win Win for Peter.
So I imagine like today’s guys on the corner holding up the “honest sign” stating they need “Beer Money”, the men of Old Mother Russia begged for some “Beard Money”
Also credit to the artist who created the tree brushes I used in this post.