An all time low in common knowledge

[MK]

I asked an ebay seller what the width of the brim was. This is what I got back:


Sorry, I don't know a hat from a schmat. What is the brim? The top part? If so, it is 8'' long. The silk around it is 2'' wide. Hope this helps. If not Email back.

This person is in the United States.....hopefully English is NOT thier first language....or our culture is in trouble.

I did my best to explain what a brim is....it was a new experience for me.

The top part that your head goes in is called the crown. the brim is the somewhat flat, circular portion that sticks outward from the crown of a hat. Yours looks to be somewhere between 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 inches wide....measuring from the crown to the edge. Can you tell me what that measurement is? Thanks.

 

[jake_fink]

Schmat... that may be yiddish, but I somehow doubt that Yiddish is their first language. No, I think they are native speakers, which means it's another problem... one of (to be generous) specialized hat knowledge.

There are also listings for hats with an inside diameter of 11 1/2 inches, which either means this was the Jolly Green Giant's hat, or that the seller is measuring the brim too.

Weird.

 

[John in Covina]

Common sense is so uncommon these days!

It's all too "Scientific" for the average person:
diameter,
circumfrence,
width,
length
height!

Brim schwimm Fillit to da rim wit brim, I says!

Question: Do they still teach Geometry in High School?

Response: Whattemeye supposed ta be a Physicist?

Don't know nuttin, don't wanna know nuttin!

 

[adamgottschalk]

Spot on

And, it only cost us thirty thousand a year to 'educate' each kid. Are we the folks who got dumbed-down?

cb

I think you've hit the nail on the, the, ah...what's that thing called?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Schmat... that may be yiddish, but I somehow doubt that Yiddish is their first language.

You'd think that someone who speaks Yiddish would know something about hats ... especially black ones with wide brims.

 

[Feraud]

The top part that your head goes in is called the crown. the brim is the somewhat flat, circular portion that sticks outward from the crown of a hat.

If the person cannot figure out what a brim is from your description, I feel bad for them. They did not have the common sense to look it up in a dictionary!! Geez, talk about clueless.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

The top part that your head goes in is called the crown. the brim is the somewhat flat, circular portion that sticks outward from the crown of a hat. Yours looks to be somewhere between 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 inches wide....measuring from the crown to the edge. Can you tell me what that measurement is? Thanks.

Oh! Okay! That thing is what you mean! Okay, it's like,....12 inches from the front to the back, and uhh,...8 and a half and a couple of those really little marks on the ruler across the hole in the middle, hope this helps.

 

[Katt in Hat]

Abramoff's Borsalino; a Cosmo II Fedora. Art F. is quoted in the article.

You'd think that someone who speaks Yiddish would know something about hats ... especially black ones with wide brims.

From The Forward

The Shmooze
Lobbyist?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Black Hat Is a Borsalino From Brooklyn
By ANTHONY WEISS
January 6, 2006

After pleading guilty to three felony counts of mail fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy, lobbyist Jack Abramoff walked out of federal court in Washington, D.C., in a black fedora purchased from Bencraft Hatters, a Brooklyn-based haberdasher that caters largely to Orthodox Jews.
Two conservative commentators suggested that Abramoff's hat was intended to make a religious statement. In a posting on the National Review Online, John Podhoretz wrote that Abramoff was wearing "the black hat of a very Orthodox Jew" while New York Times columnist David Brooks described the hat as "a pseudo-Hasidic homburg [sic]."

Implicit in the speculation is that Abramoff, an observant Orthodox Jew, was trying to use his Judaism to counter his negative public image. That impression was bolstered by his statement during his plea bargain in the Washington court, which struck a religious tone. "I only hope that I can merit forgiveness from the Almighty and from those I have wronged or caused to suffer," Abramoff told the court. "I will work hard to earn that redemption."

The hat in question, a Como II fedora made by Borsalino, retails on the Bencraft Web site for $200. Salesman Asher, who declined to give his last name, told the Forward that Bencraft sells the majority of its hats to religious Jews, but that Abramoff's model ?¢‚Ǩ?ìis not a particularly religious hat.?¢‚Ǩ? He said the hats Bencraft sells to religious Jews typically have ?¢‚Ǩ?ìa bit higher crown and a bigger brim.?¢‚Ǩ?

A sociologist of American Jewry at Queens College, Samuel Heilman, said that the hat Abramoff wore would be more typical for so-called yeshivish Jews. "It would be the kind of hat you might see in Lakewood, [N.J.]," the site of a large, Orthodox rabbinical college, Heilman said. He speculated that Abramoff might have bought the hat to wear for religious occasions, but saw no reason to think that Abramoff wore it to court for religious reasons. "He probably didn't own another hat with a brim."

Observers in Washington said Abramoff usually does not wear a black hat, instead preferring a black yarmulke or no head-covering at all. Adam Segal, like Abramoff a resident of Silver Spring, Md., did note that Abramoff once belonged to the Southeast Hebrew Congregation, "a black-hat shul."

On the day following his appearance in Washington, Abramoff appeared at a federal court in Miami wearing a suit and a tan baseball cap. Chaim Waxman, a sociologist at Rutgers University, told the Forward he saw the baseball cap on television and said to himself, "This guy's obviously an Orthodox Jew," explaining, "Who else would wear a cap like that with a suit?"

Even with the fedora, Art Fawcett, proprietor of Vintage Silhouettes Custom Crafted Hats in Oregon, was not convinced that Abramoff had made the right choice. "I think it's not the right hat for him," Fawcett said. "He needs a wider brim and a shorter crown." He also suggested that, given the occasion, the color might not be right: "Bad guys always wear black hats."

 

[pointystuff]

education

I teach in a public high school. It's disturbing to think that
those students will one day be tending us in the nursing home...if they get jobs, of course. Many of my students say they are going to be professional musicians or pro athletes -- or just live off their parents forever.

Today we were watching 1964-vintage news footage of civil unrest in the South.
One of the students sincerely wanted to know "if they had movies back then."




B

 

[Snrbfshn]

Katt - that's great...

Thanks for an entertaining post, with a little different tilt. Many of us wondered what kind of brim it was.

 

[John in Covina]

Thanks for an entertaining post, with a little different tilt. Many of us wondered what kind of brim it was.

*********
Decaf!

 

[Katt in Hat]

Your friendly post has allowed me to make my bones .

Thanks for an entertaining post, with a little different tilt. Many of us wondered what kind of brim it was.

All have been just swell to this NOG-Noobie Olde Gaffer.

This is a more than warm and welcoming space. Ladies and Gents who post here seem to grasp the difference between "You're Welcome", and "No problem", amongst many other niceties that I have observed in a very short space of time.

You folks are so easy on a guy that I intend to drastically cut back posting on Freep, The Guardian and The Noo Yawk Times; and throw most of my bombs here.:drum:

 

[LaMedicine]

Today we were watching 1964-vintage news footage of civil unrest in the South.
One of the students sincerely wanted to know "if they had movies back then."



B

I was a high school student back then. Does that mean I'm vintage?

Oops. better get back to track. So, MK, did you get the brim measuremeant at all?

 

[MK]

yes

I guess my description was adequate.....but it was a stingy brim.

 

[StraightRazor]

I got that beat, I got that beat

I'm in my third year of college. Graphic Design. We recently had to give a 10 minute power point presentation on a specific design movement. Mine was the 60's psychedelic poster. It went very well. I was the only one who turned up looking presentable in a suit, and prepared to give a presentation in front of 15-20 people. (We have small classes). Anyway, I went first so I could enjoy the rest of the time watching everyone else. The girl who went after me was a complete disaster. She mispronounced nearly every name of every designer she mentioned, but the absolute topper was when she was talking about the mass exodus of creative minds out of Europe at the end of the thirties. She looks down at her notes, stutters and says, "With the rize of Nayt-ziie, um, Nahh-zee, uhhhh, Naht-seeh fah-shkizsm at the end of the nineteen thirties..." I kid you not. She had absolutely no idea what a Nazi was. How can you make it to college without knowing what a Nazi is? Or, if you never learn who they were, how can you not at least know how to pronounce the name???!!!! This is some of the most important history in the world! That obviously means she has no idea who Hitler was or what he was responsible for. People like this are the ones who allows things like that to happen again with their ignorance. Amazing. That's America for you.

 

[Burma Shave]

My favorite...

...is when I wear a newsboy cap and people tell me I look very French in my "beret."

When I DO wear a beret (I wear a very full one, square on top of my head, with the extra material pulled to the back so it looks a bit like a backwards newsboy) they tell me I look like a beatnik or an artist, but the word "French" doesn't come up.

One of my students (when I taught college English for a few semesters) repeatedly told me I looked French in my newsboys until one day I told him he looked like an overgrown Spanky McFarland in his crooked ball cap. He didn't know who Spanky was -- and actually thought I was talking about some S&M action!

 

[kools]

...is when I wear a newsboy cap and people tell me I look very French in my "beret."

I get that one all the time!

 

[RedPop4]

I'm in my third year of college. Graphic Design. We recently had to give a 10 minute power point presentation on a specific design movement. Mine was the 60's psychedelic poster. It went very well. I was the only one who turned up looking presentable in a suit, and prepared to give a presentation in front of 15-20 people. (We have small classes). Anyway, I went first so I could enjoy the rest of the time watching everyone else. The girl who went after me was a complete disaster. She mispronounced nearly every name of every designer she mentioned, but the absolute topper was when she was talking about the mass exodus of creative minds out of Europe at the end of the thirties. She looks down at her notes, stutters and says, "With the rize of Nayt-ziie, um, Nahh-zee, uhhhh, Naht-seeh fah-shkizsm at the end of the nineteen thirties..." I kid you not. She had absolutely no idea what a Nazi was. How can you make it to college without knowing what a Nazi is? Or, if you never learn who they were, how can you not at least know how to pronounce the name???!!!! This is some of the most important history in the world! That obviously means she has no idea who Hitler was or what he was responsible for. People like this are the ones who allows things like that to happen again with their ignorance. Amazing. That's America for you.

What would you like to bet she knows good and well how to pronounce it when she walks the protest march?

Is a "newsboy" the proper moniker for what I call a flat cap? Or a "bebop hat?"

 

[Burma Shave]

A newsboy...

...is what I call a flat cap, but I can't say that it's the proper name. I'm referring to the caps most commonly available now from Kangol. I've also seen them referred to as driving caps and by a host of cute names -- J. Peterman's "Thug" cap comes to mind.

One thing's for sure: It's no beret!

I have only two fedoras, one Panama and a cowboy hat (which has only been worn about 5 times, several years ago), but I love my newsboy caps. I have six in various tweeds, two wool plaids, and a few wools in solid colors. They're kind of a trademark for me. I wear them because I can tuck one inside my jacket while on the motorcycle, pull it out when I remove my helmet, and wear it. Try that with a fedora!

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

The importance of history is really being sidelined today.

I'm in my third year of college. Graphic Design. We recently had to give a 10 minute power point presentation on a specific design movement. Mine was the 60's psychedelic poster. It went very well. I was the only one who turned up looking presentable in a suit, and prepared to give a presentation in front of 15-20 people. (We have small classes). Anyway, I went first so I could enjoy the rest of the time watching everyone else. The girl who went after me was a complete disaster. She mispronounced nearly every name of every designer she mentioned, but the absolute topper was when she was talking about the mass exodus of creative minds out of Europe at the end of the thirties. She looks down at her notes, stutters and says, "With the rize of Nayt-ziie, um, Nahh-zee, uhhhh, Naht-seeh fah-shkizsm at the end of the nineteen thirties..." I kid you not. She had absolutely no idea what a Nazi was. How can you make it to college without knowing what a Nazi is? Or, if you never learn who they were, how can you not at least know how to pronounce the name???!!!! This is some of the most important history in the world! That obviously means she has no idea who Hitler was or what he was responsible for. People like this are the ones who allows things like that to happen again with their ignorance. Amazing. That's America for you.

I think that by studying history we learn a great deal about life and how to live it,....or maybe how not to live it. It is really alarming to me that students just don't seem to care about history or realize just how important it is. By being ignorant of humanity's mistakes, we are doomed to keep repeating those same mistakes! :cry: