DAILY DIRT: Redheads are the real 2 percenters

November 17, 2023 | By Steve Eighinger, Muddy River News Minister of Culture and Doctor of Love

Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) of Mad Men made for a stunning redhead. Alas, it is not her real color. She maintains the rest of her is all-natural. — photo from Mad Men (AMC)

The epicenter of redheads? Would you believe Edinburgh, Scotland? … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 785 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Let’s be honest.

We’re immediately attracted to a redhead when one walks by us. That’s from both male and female perspectives.

Whether the passer-by in question boasts bright orange, auburn or strawberry blonde locks, red hair is a bona fide eye-catcher.

So what is it about red hair that makes it so unique, other than the color itself?

Here’s a handful of items that you might find interesting:

— Redheads actually have less hair than other people. Those thick, red mop tops are not exactly what they seem.

On average, redheads have fewer hair strands overall when compared to blondes and brunettes.

Blondes, for example, have an average of around 150,000 strands of hair on their heads. Redheads have only 90,000 or so. Luckily, red hair tends to be coarser and thicker, so the discrepancy is not that easily noticeable.

— Redheads also remain distinct from others as they age because red hair doesn’t go gray. Instead it turns silver or white.

— Edinburgh has what is believed to be the highest concentration of redheads in the world. A DNA analysis conducted in 2014 discovered that 40 percent of people in the southeast region of Scotland, which contains the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, had variants of the red-haired gene. That percentage is higher than in any other region of Scotland, or the world.– Every year, thousands of red-haired people descend on Tilburg, Netherlands, for the Redhead Days Festival. Spread across three days, the festival offers workshops on make-up and skin care tips, plus assorted other events.

— Studies show that roughly 90 percent of redheaded males have experienced bullying simply because of their hair color.

— George Washington was a redhead. Portraits of Washington often feature an elder statesman with powdered white hair (as was custom in the 18th century). However, as a young man, Washington actually had reddish-brown hair. Biographer Ron Chernow confirms that was likely Washington’s true hair color. Mount Vernon, Washington’s estate, even has a lock of his hair that displays the amber hue.

— Approximately 2 percent of the world’s population is red-headed. That figures out to between 70 million and 140 million people, plus many more are carriers of the red-hair gene. So redheads will not be going extinct any time soon.

— Mark Twain was a redhead. As a young man, Twain had vibrant red hair, which went gray in his 50s.

— Lucille Ball was not a natural redhead. She made the switch from brunette and blonde in 2943.

2. I think it would be safe to say most MLB fans enjoyed the first season of using the pitch clock to speed up play, and it’s rather easy to see why.

The average MLB game in 2023 lasted 2 hours 40 minutes, the quickest games since 1984 and a decline of 24 minutes from 2022.

Other important facts from the first year of the pitch clock:

The number of games lasting 3 hours 30 minutes:

2021: 390
2022: 231
2023: 9

The changes also led to more action in 2023, such as:

Average number of runs per game:

2022: 8.6 runs per game.
2023: 9.2 runs per game.

Average number of stolen base attempts:

2022: 1.4
2023: 1.8

Look for some tweaking of the rule during the offseason. From what I read from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s office, it appears the powers-to-be would like to knock a few more seconds off the clock, maybe dropping the available time to pitch from 20 seconds to 18 seconds or 17 seconds with no runners on base, and possibly from 15 seconds to 13 seconds or 12 seconds with runner(s) on base.