Keep calm.

New hats ("The Early Spring Collection!") will be arriving soon.

Star gazing, or: Sometimes, a hat is just a hat.

I attended a baseball game at Minute Maid Park between the home team Houston Astros and the visiting Texas Rangers (my home team, still) last weekend.  I asked a couple of friends to join me. I chose the Houston location primarily because it's in an air conditioned ballpark, in downtown Houston. Both of these are important considerations to me. Houston's transfer to the American League West this year is something that gives me great pleasure.

On my list of things to do at the game (in addition to paying too much for a Saint Arnold beer) was to purchase a Houston Astros ballcap, now that they have returned to an older-style logo. I have long admired the cap for its simplicity of design: orange cap, blue star, with serif H.

I will no doubt wear my Astros cap often, because it is orange and unstructured. But for the game, I wore the cap I proudly wore into the ballpark... as did about half of those in attendance.

P.S. The game was the best of both worlds. The Rangers won convincingly, and I got to see the choo-choo train move across the left field parapet.

An infomercial

A classic.

My membership perk for supporting my local Classical Music station was a choice between a canvas tote and an unstructured cotton ball cap. Selecting the tote (the standard gift for supporting public broadcast stations since about 1868) might also be construed as lending tacit support for the city of Austin's socialist-driven plastic bag ban. Selecting the ball cap would allow me to protect my scalp... and post to this blog.

Easy choice. Freedom from sunburn, nanny-state tyranny, and pop music!

Killer Rabbit

In the mid 1960's a bunch of mostly Dallas-based guys, including David Witts (my dad's lawyer at the time), Wick Fowler (of chili mix fame), Frank Tolbert, Carroll Shelby, and commercial artist Bill Neale, all got involved in promoting a land project in the Big Bend area of West Texas.

It was near the ghost town of Terlingua. Among other things, they used/promoted/founded to sell land in the desert was The World Chili Championship and Carroll Shelby's Ford-sponsored racing enterprises. Bill Neale designed a logo for the Terlingua Ranch that combined the style of a medieval heraldic crest lion with a West Texas jack rabbit. This became the logo for the Terlingua Racing Team (which was seen on Ford Shelby Cobras racing and winning in Europe).

I've long been a fan of the Terlingua Racing Team (which kinda actually existed/exists). It epitomized the elements of the Texas Legend I find most appealing.

On a trip to Alpine, Texas (the gateway to the Big Bend), I ran across an outpost of the Terlingua Team at a place called The Stable Performance Cars (run by the retired regional director of the US Border patrol). They race the Terlingua Racing Team Carroll Shelby Mustangs, and they sell stuff.

That's where I bought my Official Terlingua Racing Team Cap.

1967 Shelby-American Mustang at The Stable Performance Cars in Alpine, Texas.

Strawman

In the entrance-hall of Casa Verano: The Towering Infernal.

Panamanian uprising

A suitable replacement for my daily straw hat has been found.

It's a genuine "Panama" hat from Ecuador via the USA (woven and formed in Ecuador, trimmed and banded in the USofA), marketed by Pantropic of Northern California, and trimmed in Massachusetts.

The 3" brim is the perfect width. The just slightly open weave allows ventilation. The fedora pinched crown meets my fashion sense (not too tall), and the 3/4 inch black silk hatband looks less formal than the standard 1-1/4 inch variety fitted to Panamas.

Now to overcome my fear of wearing it out (by wearing it out).

Old soldiers never die, they just become yardwork hats.

A suitable replacement hat has been found (soon to be unveiled on these pages), and this old favorite will now be consigned to die an ugly death protecting my head when I do yard work.

Adios, mis amigo. Vaya con Dios.

Falling a 1/4 inch short.

Ultimately, it just didn't make the cut, falling about a 1/4 inch short. I tried, but the slightly insecure feeling of the forced-fitting on my inflated cranium led to failure.

But Pantropic makes nice hats. Quality straw, all natural materials in sweatband and headband, with an understated style on many levels. Maybe I'll find another Pantropic, one more suitable to a bloated skull.

Shades of things to comes?

A contender returns. This is the Pantropic Ecuadoran Panama that is sized L, but is just slightly too small. Also problematic is the lanyard (while functional, I dislike the look and bother). But it's a handsome hat.

I wore it today to Fredericksburg, where the temp hit 101°. It did a good job providing portable shade, and might bode well for the future.

P.S. Sam Bass was born, and died, on this date. He robbed the UP train.

Another reason I wear hats.

I wear hats because they make my shadow more interesting.

Sweet Rejection

I want it to work. Really I do. I like so much about it. The cloth headband, the darker straw. The vent holes. Alas. Brim too narrow, crown too tall.

It certainly works as a centerpiece, just not as a headpiece. But relief is on the way (?).

Road kill

As the search for a new straw hat winds down (a winner to be revealed soon... hopefully), I nonetheless keep my eyes open for other cancer-preventing head coverings. I spied this company-issue hat along the side of Farm-to-Market Road 1626 the other day. I washed it in the dishwasher twice. For novelty use only.

Black cotton brushed-twill ball cap, embroidered logo, manufactured by Cintas.

In college, I dined at Church's with great regularity. I'd buy a two-piece snack-box with a wing, a drumstick, a yeast roll, and a jalapeño for $1.19. At that time, Church's was a San Antonio-based company, and their fried chicken was the best chain-chicken on the market. They over-expanded, and fell into the hands of their major competitor, Popeye's Chicken out of Louisiana. Swamp-death to the brand, as Popeye's made Church's the "lowest priced" fried chicken place... with low-price quality.

Could'a been a contender: Audition No. 3

Another authentic 'Panama' hat (woven in Ecuador) that I've had for a few years, but don't wear much. It's 'made' by Pantropic Hats, and is a roll-up travel Panama with chinstrap. It's a wonderful hat that I bought on clearance at REI, but it has one serious drawback, and one less serious one.

Minor drawback: I don't like chinstraps, even though they can be wonderfully functional. For me, they mostly just get in the way.

Major drawback: It's a size large. My true hat size in 60cm. My S/M/L/XL hat size is XL. I have a big head (but you knew that already, right?).

Smokin' Dope: Audition No. 2

Another hat from the closet. This genuine "Panama" straw hat is from Ecuador, and made with toquilla straw, like all authentic Panama hats. It's a one-size-fits-all from Orvis (elastic sweat band self-adjusts for size... even my XL).

I've had this hat since about 1995, but it's just never "stuck" with me. The crown seems too big, and the brim seems too small. But it's going to get a serious work-out as the search continues.

The Replacement Fuse is lit: Audition No. 1

As I begin the process of finding a straw hat to replace my decaying Dorfman Pacific Panama-style hat, various cats and caps will have auditions for my effections/affections. A ball cap won't be the replacement, but I am trying out hats I seldom use as a stop gap measure. This hat was a gift from a friend who does inside sales for Fuseco. It's a heavy-weight, brushed twill cap, with a nice camo bill. It's probably better suited for use in the winter than the summer.

It does have good sweat-absorption properties.

Storm clouds of the End Times

My Dorfman-Pacific straw hat, with the Stetson pheasant feathered band, is about to die. The toyo straw is breaking down, and will soon be unwearable.

This has been a great hat, a true 'signature' hat for me, rivaling my Kierkegaard ball cap. Anticipating the inevitable, I have been searching for a replacement for a few years, but with no luck. The combination of pinched crown, a soft and fairly open weave that breathes easily (plus vent holes), and a broad shade-producing brim with thin band, appears to be a rarity.

The search will now intensify. It must.

Major Morris

Today's featured ball cap sports the logo of the extinct Morris Motors, founded and based in Oxford, England. Many only know Morris Motors from the sports car division, Morris Garage, commonly known by the initials M.G. The shield depicts an ox crossing the Isis River (known as the Thames River further down stream), the river ford being the reason for the town's establishment during Saxon times. 

When I was growing up, my older brother (by almost a decade) owned two Morris Minor convertibles; a powder blue 1949, and a pale yellow 1958. The car I learned to drive in was that 1949 (as well as a 1959 Ford Ranch Wagon with a 352 c.i. V8, and no 'power' anything except the big V8). The Morris' were delightfully British vehicles, made outside of Oxford, England. The Minor was designed by the brilliant and innovative Sir Alec Issigonis. It was a car that had many advantages over it's similarly-sized Germanic competition, the Volkswagen Type I... and several crippling disadvantages.

There was a rare model of the Morris Minor that I've always wanted, the Morris Minor Traveller. It was the 'wagon' version, with real wood framing on the outside of the wagon box, and 'barn doors' in the rear.

Morris went on to produce the Mini Minor (again designed by Alec Issigonis), an even smaller car that revolutionized small car engineering, being the first transverse-engined, front-wheel-drive car, a design that is now almost universal, even for today's 'full-sized' cars. There was also a Mini Traveller, with the same wood-framed, barn-doored design of the larger Morris Traveller.

Morris became part of BMC, and then part of British Leyland, then part of Austin Rover, and finally the marque was split off and purchased by a Chinese company. BMW purchased Rover/Land Rover (and the former Morris plant in Oxford), and inherited a preliminary modern Mini design from Austin Rover, modified it using some designs they had done for a small FWD car, and re-launched the company as MINI. After several years, BMW created an all-new MINI, this time 100% BMW engineered. With the relaunch, a successor to the Traveller was created. having failed to buy the rights to the Traveller name, BMW called the slightly longer MINI the 'Clubman'.

I recently bought a MINI Cooper S Clubman, in part to fulfill my old longing for a Morris Minor Traveller. Still made in Oxfordshire, and to me... still a Morris at heart, even if it was designed by BMW in Munich, and not by Sir Alec in Oxford.

And there you have it.

Gimmie shelter.

I support an Audio Enthusiast's internet forum. They cover my scalp.

Pie fixes everything.

It all comes back home.