Many years ago, when Matthew worked at our alma mater as an admission officer and sometime liaison for accepted international students, he received a t-shirt from a Korean student as a thank-you for helping him out. The t-shirt was red, white, and a complete mystery to Matthew, who accepted it with the same great enthusiasm with which the t-shirt was gifted.

He brought it home and said, “Who are the Rods?”

It turns out that the t-shirt was made in support of the Korean national World Cup team, the slogan is “Be the Reds“, and is a source of intense national pride. Thankfully, Matthew resisted the urge to ask his benefactor who the Rods were, because it was supposed to be obvious to anyone claiming to be an international liaison who the Reds were. Every time I see the shirt, I have to exclaim, loudly, “BE THE RODS!” Perhaps this is why Matthew has stopped wearing it.

But the actual point of this entry is not to mock Matthew, if you can believe it. There once was a time, not too long ago, when you all weighed in on what kind of haircut I should get. It has been a few months now, and I just wanted to give you an update.

My hair is in that awful in-between stage where I really ought to get it cut again, but am resisting because I usually don’t cut my hair until mere days before I have to be presentable for some particular event. That’s just how I roll. (Thankfully I’m on the inside track with a stylist, so he’s come to expect the last-minute-haircut and always manages to pencil me in.) I’ve recently noticed a very bad, very sad development. Part of my “work routine” is to catch up on old episodes of The Daily Show while I’m painting. After having been gone for a month, I had lots to catch up on. And in that month, there was a heckuva lot of Rod Blagojevich for Jon Stewart to make fun of (ok, that’s an old clip, but worth the watch anyway). So, I’m looking at these bits on Mr. Blagojevich, and I think to myself, “Jeez, that guy looks familiar…”

Oh no. Oh my.

I have the same haircut as Rod Blagojevich.

This needed to be remedied, and fast. Several of you lauded the great benefits of pony-tail-able hair. My hair isn’t there yet. But, the ugly stepsister to the ponytail rubber band is the headband. And so I dialed up Etsy and ordered myself a couple new headbands. Bargain headbands. They were cheap. And fast. And the transformation well worth the $4.

I also got one in a cool japanesey pattern. Which will keep anyone from mistaking me, I hope, for the Rod.

ps – Be the Rods t-shirts are available here, in case you’d prefer a less mortifying way to be compared to Sr. Blagojevich, or in case you’d like me to exclaim “Be the Rods!” next time I see you.