Ammunition > Heroics

This is going to be a strange post.
Especially coming from me. Or maybe you've come to expect strange things, and thus, no matter what I do, it will seem ordinary.
Anyway, you have officially been warned.



Yesterday I discovered that I am totally obsessed with cool hats.
The worst part is that I think I've been like this for years and I wasn't even aware of it. It's entirely possible that everyone but me knew about this already.
I'll give you all an opportunity to laugh at me now...


...OK, now you're done.
Seriously, though. Cool hats... they're really cool.
I often talk about how strange it is that nobody wears hats anymore. Why does nobody wear hats anymore? I guess I have no place to talk, since I don't have a hat. But if I had a cool hat, I might wear it. But hats (like most clothes, really) are expensive. And I don't have money.
If I did have money, I probably wouldn't spend it on clothes. Not even a hat.
But if I found a cool hat in a thrift store that was cheap, maybe I would buy it. Because hats are cool. Not all hats though. Only cool hats.

Allow me to talk about some hats, perhaps, in the process, attempting to explain why they are cool:



FEDORA
This is pretty much the ultimate cool hat. It's not necessarily the coolest hat ever (although they're definitely one of my favorites). It's just the best, most generic one.










It is often associated with gangsters, detectives, newspaper reporters, and... well pretty much all kinds of people from that culture/era (specifically, 1930s-ish USoA).
The coolest fedoras are definitely pinstriped ones. They're obtusely snazzy. And trendy, too.
Believe me, I know about trends.
(I say this a lot. I'm being sarcastic. FYI.)










See? Amazing.
Here is the Wikipedia article on fedoras.



BERET
This is a classic.



One of the cool things about hats is that they say so much. They're often symbols of status or rank. Hats are representational. You can say, "Oh, I can tell he's in charge here because of the hat he's wearing." But can you say "This man must be important; look at his socks!" No. No, you can't.
Berets are used by military forces all over the world. A lot of times, the color will indicate the person's rank or what branch of the military they belong to.
I think berets are best a solid color. Maroon is good.



Oh yeah, that's the other cool thing; you can pin all sorts of shiny insignias and stuff to berets, and they're even better, usually.
Here is the Wikipedia article on berets.



CUSTODIAN HELMET
Not technically a hat, but whatever. Isn't a helmet just another kind of hat? I would say so.

You know, the ones that police officers (particularly in the UK) wear. They're spiffy!
They can have all kinds of shiny things on the front and the top.


Why don't more police forces use these hats? It's a shame, really. It seems like a lot of times police officers go running around wearing something boring and flat, or even worse, no hat at all!
Here is the Wikipedia article on custodian helmets.



BOWLER/DERBY HAT
An older hat; reminds me of Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges.

These hats look kind of dignified. But they can also look menacing. It depends on who's wearing it, really. If you're an evil mastermind, you can wear the hat and look even more evil and mastermindly. But if you're a sophisticated banker, you can wear the hat and look even more sophisticated and bankerly.
Bowler hats don't really vary much. They're almost always plain black. But they can be cool in other colors too.

It's like the Riddler in Batman!
Here is the Wikipedia article on bowler/derby hats.



CABBY/GOLF CAP
Simple, but very cool.

I always associate this kind of hat with Oliver Twist. It was pretty popular in the nineteenth century, I think.
There are lots of different variations on this same basic style.

This is more like something people still wear sometimes today. Like Shiki Misaki.
Here is the Wikipedia article on cabby/golf caps.



SALAKOT
A nice, largish sort of hat.

I couldn't really find any pictures with a plain background. Just do a Google image search or something.

These hats come from the Philippines. There are a lot of different interesting styles. Usually they're simple, but they can be pretty fancy sometimes.
Here is the Wikipedia article on salakots; there are a couple pictures of fancier ones there.



ROGATYWKA
This is one I just discovered today. It's not too unusual, but not too plain, either.

These hats are used by the Polish military. Different colors can denote different unit types.


Here is the Wikipedia article on Rogatywkas.




...That's it for today.
Two posts in a row!


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:::Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
:::19.10.08
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