Also, how early is early -- a significant portion of these women choosing after baldness has manifested?

FWIW, DH had a visibly receding hairline at 24 when I met him. My dad is bald. DH and Dad are also about the same height and are both much smarter than average. However, beyond being bald and 6'0", they don't look alike. And I don't think I married a smart man because being around my dad made me admire smart men--I married a smart man because my DNA and environment made me smart, and I can't imagine being married to a man I couldn't carry on an intellectual conversation with.

You have to fly over this continent too, don't you?

Ayup.

My theory (completely untested) is that I sure don't have enough tall to have tall kids, but might have enough smart to bump them up.

Then again, the things I like aren't necessarily things I claim about myself.

What if, though, she's using his paternal relatives for these cues?

Then she makes a mistake. Spousal assortment for most things is modest, because the cues are not very good, and because, as Betsy points out, not every trait is considered important by every person. Religion, race, height, and intelligence are the traditional examples, and religion and race are both losing ground.

This is news?

The original comment was, "It is clear that this happens for traits like intelligence and height, and it could happen here too," so no. Not news. That it might happen for baldness, though -- kinda newsy. To me, anyway. I have no idea whether I'd be more attracted to men with my father's hairline than otherwise. Mind you, my father's hair is both white and very very short most of the time. Short enough that I sometimes think maybe he's balding and then remember, no.

My father is a foot taller than my mother, and pretty close to average height for US population.

My husband is 3-4 inches taller than me, if neither of us are wearing shoes. I can often look him in the eye when wearing heels.

Dad and DH both getting baldish.

Huh. Usually I just end up jumping to the front of Natter and finding myself in the middle of one of these conversations (i.e., the kind where people seem to be contributing data points). It's been a while since I've followed long enough to see one evolve. It's kind of cool.

I married a smart man because my DNA and environment made me smart, and I can't imagine being married to a man I couldn't carry on an intellectual conversation with.

Yes, this exactly. Except change the "married" part to "dating" for me. My dad and BF couldn't be more dissimilar. Dad=5'6", bald, smart. BF=6'3", full head o'hair, smart. Okay, they're both male and smart. So much in common.

And I do think I have a slight bias toward bald men, NSM with men my age as once men reach an age where most are either bald or gray. Bald just looks more normal to me than a thick head of gray hair, and I'm sure that's from familial imprinting.

Do both BF and dad have eyes? Two apiece? Two legs apiece? Not lemurs, either of them?

I think we really underestimate the number of similarities that can be found between two people.

In other news, is it crass to point out word mis-usage and grammar flaws in an essay about how sentence construction is the everliving key to composition? Is it crasser if the publisher of said essay is the New York Times?

Aha! That's why I like (or don't dislike) younger men -- my dad is babyfaced.

I should try slipping that one past my mother.