Share any passages from any books that hit on Mustachianism in some way. The books themselves needn't be mustachian in overall theme. I'll go first.
I'm re-reading
The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson, and this passage, written in 1989, struck me. Here goes (channeling typing 101 right now):
In the evening I sat in Hal and Lucia's house, eating their food, drinking their wine, admiring their children and their house and furniture and possessions, their easy wealth and comfort , and felt a sap for ever having left America. Life was so abundant here, so easy, so convenient. Suddenly I wanted a refrigerator that made its own ice-cubes and a waterproof radio for the shower. I wanted an electric orange juicer and a room ionizer and a wristwatch that would keep me in touch with my biorhythms. I wanted it all. Once in the evening I went upstairs to go to the bathroom and walked past one of the children's bedrooms. The door was open and a bedside light was on. There were toys everywhere - on the floor, on shelves, tumbling out of a wooden trunk. It looked like Santa's workshop. But there was nothing extraordinary about this; it was just a typical middle-class American bedroom.
And you should see American closets. They are always full of yesterday's enthusiasms: golf-clubs, scuba diving equipment, tennis-rackets, exercise machines, tape recorders, dark-room equipment, objects that once excited their owner and then were replaced by other objects even more shiny and exciting. That is the great, seductive thing about America - the people always get what they want, right now, whether it is good for them or not. There is something deeply worrying, and awesomely irresponsible, about this endless self-gratification, this constant appeal to the baser instincts.
Do you want zillions off your state taxes even at the risk of crippling education?
'Oh, yes!' the people cry.
Do you want TV that would make an imbecile weep?
'Yes, please!'
Shall we indulge ourselves with the greatest orgy of consumer spending that the world has ever known?
'Sounds neat! Let's go for it!'
The whole of the global economy is based on supplying the cravings of two per cent of the world's population. If Americans suddenly stopped indulging themselves, or ran out of closet space, the world would fall apart. If you ask me, that's crazy.
I should point out that I am not talking about Hal and Lucia in all this. They are good people and lead modest and responsible lives. Their closets aren't full of scuba diving equipment and seldom used tennis rackets. They are full of mundane items like buckets and galoshes, ear-muffs and scouring powders. I know this for a fact because late in the night when everyone was asleep I crept out of bed and had a good look.
So what's yours? What passage - from any book - popped out of the page and punched you in the face, tickled your chin or otherwise made you take notice reading its witty mustachian musings?