Viewer Gives Paul Solman a 'Hat Tip'

MAKING SEN$E -- February 24, 2012 at 2:00 PM EDT

Viewer Gives Paul Solman a 'Hat Tip'

Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news on his Making Sen$e page. Here is Friday's "query":

Name: Bob

Comment: Ditch the stupid hat -- spoils your serious image!

Paul Solman: Tell it to my dermatologist! See Making Sen$e, June 11, 2011, for a more extended explanation, and the results of our viewer poll. As for the "serious image," I thought I'd dispelled any illusion with my very first piece for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in June of 1985 (no typo), when I staged an imaginary hostile takeover of the conglomerate "Jumbo Corporation" (circus and jet divisions), its annual report an animated cartoon. As this story ran seven years before the first transmission over the World Wide Web, I cannot link to streaming video as evidence of my goofy-yet-serious past. Nor can I access my desperate attempt at a backward midair somersault (in a harness) at the Cirque de Soleil training facility in the '90s. I have tried, over the years, to share what I know and learn while not taking myself too seriously. Too late to change now.

This entry is cross-posted on the Making Sen$e page, where correspondent Paul Solman answers your economic and business questions.

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