Friday, November 12, 2010

The Murphy Mouth

Many of you have heard my mom or myself refer to our mouths as the "Murphy Mouth."  The Murphy Mouth is a physical characteristic that literally dominates the gene pool in our family.  It comes from my mom's side of the family - the Murphys - and is now strongly represented in the Evans' (me and my brothers), the Stinnetts (Evan and Mattie) and the newest Evans' (my brother's family - baby TJ).

I can only describe this mouth as plump.  The lips have a specific arch and are fuller than your average lips.  I've had others refer to them as Betty Boop lips.  But the appearance of the lips is not the only quality one must possess to be credited with the Murphy Mouth.  There is a certain lip trick, if you will, that the Murphy Mouth is best known for.  One must be able to arch one side of their top lip while the other side remains normal.  It doesn't matter which side as some of us are right-lipped while others are left-lipped.  For example, my mom is right-lipped and I am left-lipped.  We will be visiting the Murphy side of the family over Thanksgiving and I will be sure to document the various members who are a part of this elite group - but until then, here is an example of three generations of the Murphy Mouth.  And notice, as we age the arch becomes more pronounced.




This is the family's claim to fame.  May not be very attractive, but DAMN, that's talent!  And because Mattie is 4 weeks old today here are a few more photos.




4 comments:

Score said...

I'm crackin' up right now! I didn't know that it was one side or the other.

jack said...

Funny. I knew there was something unique about about that yapper of yours. I think I commented on it in a previous post and referred to it as the Evans mouth. I stand corrected.

Kylie said...

ha! Did you get your mom to pose for that pic? Mattie is looking like Evan did I think. Has she woken up from the newborn quiet phase yet?

Anonymous said...

I always think of it as the "Elvis" Murphy-Evans lip!
CUTE!!!

Your mom has always been very proud of that inherited trait - so tell Evan and MJ to keep passing it on!

Love you!
Michele & JW