Are mustaches the new beards? In today's New York Times Style section, we learn about the questionably new trend of ironic and semi-ironic upper lip hair. The Dickensian named writer, Nick Burns, elucidates our mustachioed moment with some examples from the culture: Borat Sagdiyev has a 'stache, so does the guy from My Name is Earl. Even some real—more or less—people have mustaches:

A few years ago, youngish cultural provocateurs like the fashion photographer Terry Richardson, Dov Charney, the owner of American Apparel clothing, and Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker of "Super Size Me," began sporting mustaches in a statement of retro hip. But the style never quite reached the kind of critical mass needed for it to tip from underground cool to mainstream fashion, like the goatee.

Burns should know: He appears to be the Times' male facial hair correspondent. In January 2006, he wrote about the rise of five blade razors, and in June 2005 he asked, Are Men Ready for the 5-Step, 10-Minute Shave?

Men might be ready for it, but is the Times? The paper of record clearly has a fetish for fuzz, as its combing over beards attests. "People are into beards right now," John Martin, advertising director for Vice magazine told the paper in March. (At the time, Martin cited Ulysses S. Grant as a role model.)

Then in July, Radar's own Mac Montandon investigated how those hipster beards were faring in the summer heat. That article seemed to contain the seed of the current 'stache attack:

Matt Westfall, 27, the chief executive officer of Adbattles, an Internet advertising firm, may fall into the second category. "I'm going to a wedding this weekend, and then I'll probably shave it," Mr. Westfall said the other day as he strolled along Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side with two similarly bearded friends.

Then he reconsidered. "Actually, what I'll probably do," he said, "is shave everything and grow a Fu Manchu."