Help or Hindrance?

Don posed an interesting question in the comments to my last post about my 2005 numbers. His question was whether shaving my goatee was a help or hindrance in achieving 2005's goals. It's a good question, but I'm not sure I can give a good answer. As far as breaking 90 goes, I think it's safe to say that my facial hair (or lack thereof) had little to no impact. Whether it influenced my ability to go on two dates with the same person is less clear. [Aside: I had to go back and edit the dating numbers. There is one girl whom I completely left out of the tabulation. However, it's really hard to be sure whether get-togethers with her were dates. So I counted them as half dates.] I've mentioned before that a certain Pretty Boy buddy of mine had lobbied for the goat exorcism long before I shaved it off. I also mentioned that he thought the sequence of events that occurred afterwards validated his claims.

In truth, there is some circumstantial evidence supporting his claim, starting with a surprise encounter with a smooth girl. Later, there was a girl who attempted to force her number on me in an attempt to strong-arm me into asking her out. Granted, that girl was annoying (but not the most annoying girl ever), but nothing like that ever happened when I had the goat. Then, there was the goal-achieving two dates. Finally -- and this is a confession for me, as I described this in the third person at the time -- there was the so-unsmooth-it's-smooth digit getting that actually resulted in 2+ more dates. You may be asking how this is circumstantial evidence. It's because while none of those happenings is a clear result of the removal of the goatee, none had happened while I had it. Heck, I hadn't been on two dates with the same person since ... let's just say it was a long time ago.

I'm afraid I can't give a lot of satisfaction on this question. But I think it's safe to say that the removal of the goatee didn't hurt me in the pursuit of my '05 goals. The debate as to whether I look better with or without the goat still rages, though. For the Pretty Boy (I know you're out there), don't think that because you may have been right in this case that I'm going to start wearing pink (no, salmon is not a color) silky shirts and product in my hair. Not gonna happen. Keep your potential gloating to yourself. But, if you were right -- and I'm not saying you were -- thanks.