Fineman Wins Battle with the Bottle

We were all relieved to see our favorite Howard overcome. Ever since - oh, right around the election - he's been letting his gray hair grow out. It's not such an easy thing to do all at once like that if you're just a private citizen who has to show up at work each day. Imagine how it must be if your head is on television night after night. Not even all of you. Just your big old head.

Change we can believe in

At first, as he grayed literally before our eyes we thought that covering the campaign season had just been exceptionally hard on ol' Howard. Or maybe he had been worried that McCain might really win. But no, it gradually became clear that he was going natural. That's change we can believe in. A new transparency, as it were. But change isn't easy. There are bumps along the way. While things started out well enough, as in the photo above, it wasn't all smooth sailing. Things got a little ugly for a while. Fineman's nadir came this past week when he made his usual media appearances with his pate in what I can only call disarray. His hair was mostly a nice silver color but there was still a hugish patch of oxidized brown, kind of in the middle of his forehead. You just wanted to take a scissors to it. Didn't look good, but it just goes to show that it really is darkest right before dawn.

A Brand New Day

Today, Mr. Fineman appeared on Chris Matthews with his head held high. He was freshly coiffed and the brown patch gone. He looked dignified and all elder statesmanish. He looked together again. He had prevailed against whatever temptation there might have been to just say. "Screw it" and go back to the bottle. What he just said was, "no". We congratulate him on his victory. It can't have been easy, but the results are worth it. And gray hair hasn't hurt Keith Olbermann any, not to mention David Gregory. I doubt he'd have gotten MTP at his tender age without that hair to give him a look of authority.

Now, can anyone think of any females with silver locks in who are in the media a lot? Donna Brazile comes to mind. Any others? I'm thinking of keeping track. It's a personal decision and people should do what they like about their grayness, baldness or any other "ness" that comes up, but I do think it would be nice if persons of both genders could continue to be considered relevant throughout without being required to masquerade as someone much younger. Also, after a while that just doesn't work so well.

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