Some years ago I was given an insulated travel coffee cup by a firm with which we did business. It was a lovely cup — tall, slender, stainless-steel inside and out, nice rubber grip on the outside.

A short time after I acquired the cup, I had an appointment in a town about 40-minutes away. It was an early morning appointment, the time of day I needed coffee-to-go, so I filled the travel cup and was on my way.

After merging onto I-80 and comfortably on my way, I flipped open the lid and took a sip of coffee. Or rather, I tried to take a sip of coffee.

I was cruelly reminded that slender cups don’t work well for me. I have a larger-than-average nose which makes it difficult to sip coffee out of a slim cup. I prefer wider cups.

We all have genetic burdens to bear. Genetics affect our height, weight, skin tone, eye color, nearly everything about us. I am a large guy and come from a line of large people. My outspokenness is a family trait. And, yes, my nose is a familial characteristic, too. Big noses run in our family.

My ancestral background is noted for its frugality, so it should follow that we would have big noses. After all, air is free.

I like to joke that we Huismans are proud of our noses; they are hand-picked. (Some folks, I have learned, don’t appreciate that kind of humor. Sorry.)

Fortunately, my children’s mother had a cute little nose and whose nose genes were passed on to our children.

Some people with larger noses are uncomfortable with them. Rhinoplast, plastic surgery performed on the nose, has been a popular surgery for years.

With a low pain threshold, I have never considered surgery on my nose. I’m comfortable with my nose, which isn’t all that out of place on a large head (not to be confused with a fat head.)

Jimmy Durante is the first person I think of when it comes to someone who was comfortable with a large nose. Durante had fun with his ample beak. He called it his “schnozzola.”

How about actor Karl Malden? He had a very prominent nose as did W.C. Fields and Walter Matthau.

Modern day actor and musician Jeff Goldblum is known for his wit and charm — and his impressive nose.

A larger nosed woman celebrity is Barbara Streisand. Frankly, with a voice like hers who notices her nose? Don’t forget Sarah Jessica Parker and Meryl Steep; both attractive ladies.

The history of the Wild West records a colorful woman who was known as Big Nose Kate. A photograph of Kate as a middle-aged woman shows an ample honker. Mary Katharine Haroney was born to wealthy parents in Hungary in 1850. The family emigrated to the U.S., moving on to Mexico and then to Davenport, Iowa.

After Mary Katharine and her younger siblings were orphaned in Davenport, the 16-year-old ran away to St. Louis and ended up in Kansas where she worked in a brothel and met the famous gunslinger Doc Holiday. The pair reportedly had a turbulent on-again-off-again love affair that went on for decades.

Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and Eatery, a restaurant in Tombstone, Arizona, is named for the former Iowan.

Most folks with a larger than normal nose have not let their proboscis impede their success, nor have I. Like the rest of me, it’s who I am.

For the record, the Guiness World Record for the longest nose ever recorded belongs to the late Thomas Wedders (aka Thomas Wadhouse.)

Wedders, who lived in England in the 1770s, had a nose that measured 7.9 inches. There were no cameras in those days but there are numerous historical accounts and publications that substantiate the astonishing snoot. Wedders was a performer in various circus sideshows in the mid-18th century.

So, I have lived a full life with a more reasonable nose (than Wedders’).

However, when I stop to smell the flowers, the flowers are scared. And sometimes when I inhale I hear an echo.

I have a good nose, as noses run!

Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2026 by Huisman Communications.