First impression

To this day, Gerald sees his lady friends as beautiful as they were back in 1948. Such is the power of first impressions. Image consultants are paid housands of dollars to pontificate in boardrooms across America, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." The adage has been given the exalted status of a proverb: "First impressions are most lasting." So what else is new? What's new is this: Even as we enter the 21st century, we don't really comprehend the unbelievable compass and consequence of first impressions. Or on what lilliputian details they are sometimes based. Gentlemen, one backward baseball cap or gold chain flashing through the hair on your chest can make or break a budding relationship with the lady before you even say "hi." Ladies, one quarter of a turn away when he ventures "hello," can turn the handsome prince back into a frightened frog.