All muttonchops are sideburns, but not all sideburns are muttonchops.

Muttonchops are, indeed, the full-on MVB deal, although they don't have to be quite so... wooly to qualify. I think it's more about the facial acreage covered than follicular volume. If your 'burns stop at the earlobe, then they're just 'burns. No need to fret.

Mutton Chops

I think the term for "mutton chops" is for people that have long sideburns that have a good amount of growth to them.

However, if you have long, full sideburns that you keep trimmed, people will refer to them as "chops". Which I think is the appropriate definition for that.

The clue is in the name. Mutton chops have the same shape as a mutton chop glued onto the sides of the face. & yes - they are not the same as sideburns.

The cool thing about an IT gig is that you can look as goofy as you want. Usually.

Chops + Investment Banking = Unemployment.

Ha! This is what I'm talking about!

Oh, lovely. I'll be stopping at the butchers on the way home.

Hey, chillmost... I did a search for facialhair on flickr, with terrifying results. DON'T DO IT.

Anyway, because of the Big Love I harbour for ill-advised facial hair, I stumbled upon this link:

http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/

Named after General Burnside. (Scroll down for lithograph.)

Subject of Jaimy Gordon's great novella Circumspections from an Equestrian Statue

"Circumspections from an Equestrian Statue (1979), in length between a story and a novel, is one of her most delightful works. It has a precise historical setting: General Burnside has returned from the American Civil War (he was the North's worst general, by some margin) to build his house, be elected governor of Rhode Island, and become famous for the cut of his whiskers ("sideburns"). Having, after four years of marriage, no child, he engages P. Mariam Wishey, "pioneer of gynecology," to examine his wife. (I would like to think Wishey is historical, but I've yet to find a reference to him.) This situation is complicated by the ghost of Burnside's nephew, who disappeared during the battle of Fredericksburg--the General's great fiasco--and by the fact that Mrs. Burnside is not (as everyone in the story seems to assume) asexual. It is a tightly constructed and very funny story in limpid prose."

Which is not as good as Bogeywoman, but, hey, anything by Gordon is great.

I think the "Hulihee" might be a rather fetching look for you...

A friend of mine not too long ago asked me to suggest a few good Indian dishes that he could order at the Indian restaurant close by to where he studies, and when I told him about mutton he was completely baffled as to what it was. And I was completely baffled as to how baffled he was.

Mutton = Goat Meat

hadjiboy? In New Zealand, mutton = sheep meat.

lamb = baby sheep
hogget = young sheep
mutton = grown up sheep

(hence the expression "mutton dressed as lamb")

Mmmmmm, makin' me hungry. I love lamb from New Zealand because it seems to taste muttonier than US domestic lamb. US lamb tastes kinda bland, like they're hard at work engineering a porkchop substitute that won't offend yhvh.

This is the first time I've heard of hogget! You made me so happy. I only wish I'd known it in time to use it as a screen name!

Hogget! You have educated me, sir.

That would be "ma'am" actually, chuckdarwin. But, yeah. Hogget. Mmmm, meaty.

Ah, so THAT'S why the farmer in Babe was named Hogget!

Anybody wanna lick my chops?

So for some reason I just went with the sideburn thing, which is obviously what got its name from Burnsides. Mutton chops, I have no idea. Weird.