From: alaric@sti.com (Alaric Tekiahyn)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Hats
Date: 17 Dec 1992 21:32:38 GMT
Organization: Software Transformation, Inc.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: smurf.sti.com

In article <1gqkhtINNq3g@phakt.usc.edu>, pechever@phakt.usc.edu (The Heckler) writes:
] In article <1992Dec17.081407.11568@midway.uchicago.edu> mss2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
] >	"Now I'm really finished.  So what, if anything, are the rest
] >of you wearing on your heads?"
] >Michael
] 
] Impu-Sebek perks up at this, and rises from the bar:
] About six feet tall, lanky, black jeans, black silk shirt, shoulder-length 
] black hair, hazel eyes, black loafers, long green trenchcoat, black fedora.
] "This is me-VR."
] He opens an X-Window the size of a door, and steps through it.
] What emerges is not that different; ....
] The fedora's the same; it too could use a
] cleaning and blocking.
] "This is me-RL."

Alaric chuckles.

"I'm not a big hat wearer," he says.
"Nevertheless, I currently own..."  [quick mental count]  "...seven hats.
 In order of the frequency in which I wear them, they are...

"One:  A battered, once-brown, now faded to reddish, low-crown hat that
 is something between a Stetson and a Hardee hat.  It has red artillery
 cords on it, and it's part of my civil war re-enactor's uniform.
 (Norfolk Light Artillery Blues - best damn artillery unit in the CSA,
 I'll have you know. <grin>)  It gets worn for basically two days solid,
 once a month, ten months a year.  Or more often.  (Or should I say,
 less infrequently?)

"Two:  A shearling 'viking helmet', complete with wool-stuffed 'horns'.
 (This one's a familiar sight around Grand Central Starport.)  I wear it
 when I'm feeling...   no, I won't inflict that one on you.

"Three:  A white wide-brim fedora, with a white silk band.  Usually worn
 with a white casual suit and a deep purple shirt.  I wear it a lot in
 summer, because it keeps the sun out of my eyes.  (Plus it looks sharp.)

"Four:  A black narrow-brim fedora, with a grey silk band.

"Five:  A British Army (14th Foot) pith helmet, Zulu Wars-period, made
 in South Africa using the original helmet molds.  I've been known to
 use this as a bike helmet, though really it goes with my Zulu Wars British
 uniform (a Major, of Engineers).  One of these days I'll wear the entire
 uniform down to the shooting range, when I get around to trying out my
 most recent batch of experimental handloads for my 1889 Martini-Henry.
 (I'm trying to develop a way to load safe and reliable ammunition for
 the Martini with smokeless powder.  The last batch can only be described
 as a resounding flop; two rounds out of three squibbed.)

"Six:  A British-cammo field cap.  It goes with the rest of my para cammo
 gear.  The last time it got worn was when we went caving in California
 Caverns - the downstream circuit.  My cammo mostly gets used as serious
 grubbies, these days.  Going crawling in the mud?  Out comes the cammo.
 It's seriously tough stuff, and if it gets filthy stinking dirty, who
 cares?

"Seven:  A kind of dark-cream-colored Stetson, with a hand-tooled leather
 band.  I made the band myself for the brown hat (#1 above) back when it
 was still brown.  I almost never wear this hat, because it isn't really
 all that comfortable.  It's a little too round for my head, and too stiff
 to really flex enough to let it fit properly.  I always feel as though
 it's perched on high points fore and aft, and rocking from side to side.
 One of these days I'll either re-blobk it or give it to Goodwill.

"I used to own a flat cap once - in the best British sports-car style -
 but someone stole it, and I never replaced it.  And I'm not counting
 helms.

"So there you have it...."


-- 
      "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom."  --  Thomas Jefferson
    ......................................................................
    Phil Stracchino : phils@sti.com : alaric@sti.com : The Renaissance Man
      PGP 2.0 - Freeware public-key data encryption.  Get it and use it!
           Finger alaric@sti.com for PGP 2.0 info and my public key
Newsgroups: alt.callahans