Free Republic

The giants, and also the midgets, of fashion are chirruping that “Hats are backs!” These fine people, who are ever discovering new ways of cladding themselves in black, are wrong. Hats never left us; hats never can leave us. But people can leave hats. Do you really want to look like this? Hipster hat People can also return to hats. And returning they are—at such a fast rate that even Walmart now sells pre-pressed small-brimmed fedoras of the type favored previously by Williamsburg hipsters. The Wall Street Journal is aware of the phenomenon and reported the lamentations of men who...

Old Rules Flummox Young Hipsters; 'I'm Wearing an $80 Fedora!' Hector Ramirez sort of knows, from watching old movies, that men are supposed to take off their hats when indoors. But the 19-year-old Brown University student wears fedoras in class—with jeans—anyway. "If I'm wearing a hat and it's part of my look, I don't think I should have to take it off," he says. On a recent trip to New York, an usher at a church had to remind him to take off his fedora. "I was wearing it all day and I guess I kind of just forgot I...

...never really goes out of style. They should have colors coordinated for the seasons, though.

I probably should have just listened to Paul Harvey. Though it wasn’t actually Paul Harvey. It was Ron Chapman. And that’s probably the problem. I understand Ron Chapman is a radio legend somewhere, but I don’t live there. So, to me, he’s just an insufferable bore. But I should have been listening anyway. Instead I got an idea. An idea that had been kind of simmering in my head for a week or so. I was trying to think of a way to show that I wasn’t happy. That I was tired of bailouts. That I didn’t want to pay...

I probably should have just listened to Paul Harvey. Though it wasn’t actually Paul Harvey. It was Ron Chapman. And that’s probably the problem. I understand Ron Chapman is a radio legend somewhere, but I don’t live there. So, to me, he’s just an insufferable bore. But I should have been listening anyway. Instead I got an idea. An idea that had been kind of simmering in my head for a week or so. I was trying to think of a way to show that I wasn’t happy. That I was tired of bailouts. That I didn’t want to pay...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, Nov. 5, 2008 – One would think that with all the hats a camp sheriff has to wear, at least one of them would be a cowboy hat. Army 1st Sgt. Willoughby Mercer of Aberdeen, Md., is the Camp Victory sheriff and noncommissioned officer in charge of the mayor cell on Camp Victory, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But the only headgear Army 1st Sgt. Willoughby Mercer wears around here is a patrol cap; all his other hats are tipped to the servicemembers living on Camp...

Alexander Wang, Burberry Fall/Winter ‘09“What the hell is that?” is a phrase that may refer to a tuque. But when it’s paired up properly, like it was at Alexander Wang’s fall fashion show, it can look hip and stylish.

Nordstrom Wool Cloche with Patent Band The Roaring 20s have become one of the great inspirations for designers in their fall/winter collections. The item we are most obsessed with right now, is the cloche hat, a perfect investment for the upcoming season. It’s feminine and classic, but when worn with a pair of jeans and a perfectly tailored jacket, endows a cool modern twist, especially if the young woman doesn’t want to look like a dame. Urban Outfitters Flower Cloche

Fedoras have a dark reputation – they were worn by gangsters and spies in Hollywood movies of the 1940s. But this season with Donna Karan’s straw hats and Diane von Furstenberg’s Hessian hats, you can be more than a mysterious woman – your look will acquire a feminine and emancipated touch.

The Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, days after anti-Iraqi forces bombed the national landmark. The U.S. has offered to help the locals rebuild the mosque, but the Samarra government wants to accomplish it on their own. U.S. Army photo Civil Affairs Wears Many Hats in Samarra The Civil Affairs team in Samarra is working on 30 different projects. By U.S. Army Sgt. Waine D. Haley 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment SAMARRA, Iraq, March 27, 2006 — Welcome to the world of Civil Affairs, where in one minute you could be drinking Chai tea with the mayor and the next...

SUSAN Kennedy, with her people skills and grasp of policy, can be a terrific chief of staff for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or, with her strategic guile and experience, Kennedy can be a brilliant strategist for the governor's re-election campaign. But she can't do both jobs at the same time. Her current hybrid status -- drawing $131,000 as a full-time state employee as the governor's chief of staff, along with a reported $75,000 supplement to perform campaign work -- is ethically shaky on its face. This double-dipping arrangement is inviting a scandal when observers start connecting the dots, fairly or not,...

At stake is the revered headdress called the 'crown of Moctezuma' MEXICO CITY - For nearly 500 years, the jewel-encrusted, plumed headdress Mexicans revere as the "crown of Moctezuma" has been hidden away in the private collections of European royalty or behind bulletproof glass in a museum in Austria. Now Mexico wants it back. And Mexican officials said last month that they would formally petition Austria for the return of the relic, on display in the Ethnological Museum of Vienna. Many scholars think the headdress once belonged to the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, who was defeated by the Spanish in...

Now pubs ban trilbies Hat rap ... angry grandad Colin Osborne outside pub     By RICHARD WHITE  A PUB chain has barred elderly gents from wearing their trilby hats — as part of the war on HOODIES. Brewer Greene King claims the brims hide wearers’ faces from CCTV cameras at its 800 premises. Staff are under orders to treat punters with trilbies the same as hoodie yobs — and deny service to those who refuse to remove them. Great-grandad Colin Osborne, 64, blew his top when a barmaid ordered him to take off his trilby at The Monument...

- Astrophysicists are scratching their heads about what's happening on the sun and in our solar system. Why has this so-called "Solar Minimum" been so active? It should be quiet now with very few sunspots because this is supposed to be the low point of the Sun's 11-year-sunspot cycle. But this week, there was a sunspot called 822 that's 87,000 miles across - the size of the planet Jupiter! Could it erupt with more powerful X-flares as has happened the past few months. Big flares threaten all the broadcast, global positioning and military satellites that now orbit our planet. As...

Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla,

British Army Pressured to Replace Hats By CARA NEW, Associated Press Writer Sat May 14, 7:26 AM ET LONDON - The British army's towering bearskin hats have been a well-known sight outside royal palaces for almost 200 years, but their days may be numbered. Animal rights activists are demanding the hats, made from the pelts of North American black bears, be replaced by artificial fur, and one protester plans to follow Queen Elizabeth II in a bear costume when she visits Canada next week. "It is time to confine bearskin to the history books, just as bearbaiting was confined to...

Check Your Stupid Hats and Tapeworms at Door BY DAVE BARRY BOSTON - A colorful cast of thousands -- politicians, delegates, reporters, security personnel, barbed-wire vendors, protesters, anarchists, jabbering wacko space loons, bomb-sniffing dogs and Dennis Kucinich -- has converged on this historic city as the Democrats gather for a convention that has been carefully scripted to galvanize America's voters with the convention's Official Theme: ``Four Solid Days of Talking.'' In the end, after speeches by every Democrat, living or dead, who has ever held the office of Game Warden or higher, the Democrats will formally nominate their official 2004...

CHAIRMAN:...Which brings us once again to the urgent realization of just how much there is still left to own. Item six on the agenda: the meaning of life. Now, uh, Harry, you've had some thoughts on this. HARRY:That's right. Yeah, I've had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and, uh, what we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One: people are not wearing enough hats. Two: matter is energy. In the universe, there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon...