In my book Please Scream Inside Your Heart, I wrote this about the great mask debate. “I’ll never fully understand how wearing a mask when in public was seen as some unholy liberty infringement. When I wore a mask and saw others around me doing the same, I felt a sense of patriotic unity. That feeling, like every other feeling during COVID, pissed off half the country. Maybe I’m a bit biased on this topic since I look better in a mask. During the peak of COVID, for the first time in my adult life, I was getting second looks by women at my local grocery store. They say some people have a face for radio. I guess I have a face for pandemic.”

Well, it turns out I’m not the only one. According to a study out of Cardiff University, people look more attractive in protective masks. (As a bonus, their breath is better, too.) As per usual, René Magritte was less surreal than we thought. The findings held true across genders, and get this. “In what may be a blow for producers of fashionable coverings – and the environment – they also discovered that a face covered with a disposable-type surgical mask was likely to be deemed the most appealing.” Researcher Michael Lewis explains: “The pandemic has changed our psychology in how we perceive the wearers of masks. When we see someone wearing a mask we no longer think ‘that person has a disease, I need to stay away.’ (Now when we see someone without a mask, we think “that person has a disease and it’s called Fox News.”)