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Last night, 11 o'clock-ish, my hair flat, my eyes slightly swollen, my red and white striped socks in grotesque visual combat with my too-tight but also floppy-collared top, I read this story by Pamela Paul in the New York Times. You'll get the gist from the title, perhaps: "She Sounds Smart, but Look at Her Hair!" If you need more, I share this paragraph below—an email Paul received following her seemingly successful (televised) moderation of a book-fair panel in Miami.

“Had the unfortunate experience of seeing you on Miami Dade College video tossing your head around and continuously pushing the hair out of your face. What the hell is the matter with you? Why wear hair that covers your eye? You are an insult to women.”

Paul's piece goes on to feature a handful of other women (Lori Gottlieb, Rebecca Skloot, Bridget Todd) who spend time in the glare of the media sun talking real issues. Women who, after adding something to the intellectual exchange, are barraged later on by inane commentary. Hair. Baggy eyes. A twice-worn purple sweater. The works.

My first thought (and I have been having this thought a lot lately): Glad I am not famous or TV-worthy. Indeed, except for those few days after a stylist has blown some sense into my tresses, I am not even hair-fit for the gym. I've lost friends over the wilderness of the stuff that sprouts from my head. I've endured the exasperation of a colleague who, while perfectly balanced on a stool in a swanky bar, implored me to find a way to fix it.

I have tried. I cannot. Imagine what the anonymous, peering-in-from-their-living-room crowds would say about me were I equipped to endure the media glare in an attempt to say something that mattered.

My second thought (and this should have been my first): Why does it give so many people so much pleasure to be unkind, inconsiderate, ruthlessly shaming? What sports zone are we living in? Why have so many grown so vigorously immune to seeing the bigger picture, and of exercising compassion?

My third thought (and this follows on the heels of my compassion post) is this: What would happen if we all agreed to use our social media channels—our blogs, our Facebook walls, our Twitter, our LinkedIn—for unadulterated good? I know it's a tall order. Heck. There are times when I want to shout, and sometimes do. But what if, for this week ahead, starting now, we set aside our inner mean and only wrote kindly of others (or, as our mothers taught us, held our tongues)?

I'm going to give it a shot. Perhaps you'll join me.

And if you want to join me, pass it on.

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Bad Hair Day Cover Reveal

Last year, STACKS readers voted to select the title of the 5th book in the Whatever After series. In this book, Abby travels through the magic mirror into the Rapunzel story, and the winning title is Bad Hair Day. Want to see what the title will look like on the book? Check out the cover!

What do you think? Whatever After #5: Bad Hair Day will be available on April 29!

Tell us in the Comments which Whatever After cover is your favorite. Visit the Whatever After site

 to see them all.

Thanks to all of you who voted!

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Hair+Rain=Bad

Puppicasso was about to walk in the rain when I snapped his “Before” picture.  He yawned with excitement.

Uh oh, here comes the dreaded blow-dry.

He is philosophically opposed to using blow dryers.  It is not that he wants to conserve electricity, we all know that he is not green, in fact his fur is every shade but.  He looks like he had highlights put in his coat, but that rainbow is his real fur color.

He enjoys going natural and certainly doesn’t like the results of an un-dampening by technological means.

He believes in unfettered hair.

He knows that fresh air flow is the best technique to purge a Bad Hair Day.

Having a/ Bad Hair Day?/ Just Shake/ It Off!/ Or Smell/ Like/ Wet Dog/ Puppma-Shave.

(nothing beats free advertising)

Filed under: Puppicasso Predictions Tagged: 2012 Predictions, advertising,

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