Somehow I feel a bit like Rodney Dangerfield when he was alive.  He, as you know, built a comic career out of ‘not getting any respect.’

Recently I just changed my look; I ordered some new eyeglasses, hand made Barrister Liberty, made in England, with Transition Anti-Glare lenses with a frame color of amber havanna.

On my first night out with close friends, no one noticed my new glasses.

Some six years ago I was tired of my comb-over hair look, so I shaved it all off the evening of a Valentine’s day party, took some lollypops’ with me and handed them out to everyone who asked me about my hair, or lack thereof.

They all went home that evening believing that I was going through chemo therapy.

But now a little over a week after being a virtual unknown, Vice Presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin pops on to the political scene and has stolen the campaign’s style spotlight, causing a run on Kawasaki 704 eyeglass frames and upswept hairstyles.

Somehow, I think you can see how I feel a bit like Rodney.

Now Sarah did this with a lot of competition.  There was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, you remember her don’t you?  She was that Democratic candidate running against Obama, who introduced those gender-neutral pantsuits and of course there was Cindy McCain’s $300,000 Oscar de la Renta-and-diamond convention outfit and Michelle Obama’s throwback to Jackie O. shift dresses.

But no one captured the style-minded country like Sarah Palin.

After all I didn’t want to capture the country, I just wanted to be noticed among some unknowns who were known to me — but all they thought was that I was sick despite my Terry Savalas lollypop move.

Now you can’t ignore the Palin style strategy is quite clever.  After all the beauty queen turned politician knows how to play up her sexuality.  She knows she’s a trophy; she wears skirts that are form-fitting and often goes without stockings.  The night of the convention she wore a black satin jacket that showed just enough cleavage to make it sexy.

She once said she was trying to be “as frumpy as I could by wearing my hair on top of my head and these schoolmarm glasses” so that I could get to the real business of governing and shooting caribou.

That’s exactly what I did when I shaved my head, it doesn’t take me long to get ready to go to a Valentine’s party.

There will always be those that will question whether style is a substitute for substance.

All that’s left for me now, is possible upswept eyebrows!