Are Redheads as Good as Deadheads?

Redheads could be extinct by the year 2100, according to The Seattle Times. The article cites research by the Oxford Hair Foundation. The Seattle Times calls the foundation an "independent institution," but my internet searches tell me that OHF, independent as it may be, is the research arm of Proctor & Gamble.

Could P&G be hoping for a run on red hair dye products?

CBS also covers mentions the possible extinction in an article on redhead discrimination, but without any alarm.

Only four per cent of the population carries the gene for red hair. With the odds that a red hair gene carrier will marry a non-carrier and since the ginger gene is recessive, we redheads could really become extinct.

My husband (let's call him "Gene") and I both carry the gene, so we certainly would have had redheaded babies.

Did we do humanity a disservice in choosing not to have children? I doubt it.

Sienna Miller: "I Hate Being a Ginger!"

This shocking quote comes from the mouth of pretty little Sienna Miller. She had to dye her hair strawberry blonde to film a Dylan Thomas biopic. (How she suffers for her art!)

I only learned this June that the UK has a deep-seated hatred (fear?) of "gingers". (See my previous redhead posts.) Weird, I go through life and never noticing this prejudice and then, there it is, smacking you in the face.

Its not like you're a natural blonde, Sienna. (See roots in photo.) "Sienna" itself is a rather unattractive brown clay pigment.

The more ubiquitous "Burnt Sienna" (always my favorite crayon, ranked number 44 by Crayola) is a ginger color. Ironic, hey, Sienna? "Burnt"?

Oh, Sienna, you have a little carrot in your teeth there, honey.

Lindsay Rides Again

How did you go from this cute, freckle-faced girl to a train wreck in such a short time?

Eleven days out of rehab and three weeks after her 21st birthday, Lindsay Lohan got popped by LA police again today for drunk driving. She was wearing her Fashion-Must-Have: an alcohol-monitoring bracelet.

Why do all the rich celebrities in LA drive drunk? Are the chauffeurs on strike?

At least, unlike Mel Gibson, Lohan was too inebriated to call anyone "sugar tits," but we'll put this down to luck-by-extreme inebriation. Perhaps at some point, she switched bodies with Nick Nolte, who has been on excellent behavior lately.

Aw, just blame her dad.

Barbies and You: A Smidgen of Truth

I heard that little American girls grow up to look like their first Barbie doll.

My first Barbie was an FOB (friend of Barbie) named Midge. She was made of the hard, putty-colored plastic Matel used before the twist and turn Barbie was born. Barbie abandoned Midge in short order and found better friends, ones who could twist and turn and look cool riding in Barbie's convertible.

What kind of name is Midge, anyway? At least I don't look anything like her.

I'd Rather be Ginger than Mary Ann

A family of redheads, or "gingers" as we are called in the UK, fled their home because of taunting and bullying about their hair color, according to an article in The London Times. Maybe this family is just a bunch of jerks and would be taunted no matter what their hair color, I thought. But apparently, prejudice against gingers is rampant in the UK if the comments attached to the online article can be taken at freckle-face value.

The degree of abuse is shocking to an american ginger. I got a couple of "carrot-top" and the less imaginative "period head" comments when I was a kid. And of course, people are still asking if the collars match the cuffs. But after an initial phase of not wanting to be different, I realized that red is an enviable asset.

Let them taunt, they're just jealous.