Hats!
Some say that Men’s hats are making a comeback.
I say that’s a good thing!
I like hats.
Being that I’m both follicly and pigmentally challenged, it only makes sense that I’d find hats useful. One, I’ve gotta keep my head warm in the winter & cool in the summer. Having a nice brim also makes it easier to see on bright days, as my eyes are rather sensitive to glare & whatnot. During warmer months, if I don’t cover my head on those occasions when I do venture outside, I’ll burn - and a sunburn on one’s head is about as unpleasant a burn as there is. For hats that help you be responsible and comfortable in the elements, I highly recommend Tilley Endurables. I’ve got several of their hats, and they’re all great, fitting even my size 8 noggin!
I also have a very personal reason for liking hats. My mom’s dad was a hat buyer for the J.L. Hudson Company. Papa worked at Hudson’s for 50 years, working his way up into management as far as he could without a college degree. If I’m a mama’s boy (and I am), then my mom is a daddy’s girl. I had special relationships with both of my grandfathers, and I proudly acknowledge the traits that I got from both of them. I’ve been told that I’m very much like my Papa in physical build, intelligence, and temperament. He was a wonderful, gentle man, who was always a joy to be around, talk to, and spend time with. I miss him greatly, but when I contemplate, purchase, and/or wear hats, I feel a connection with him and his life’s work at the legendary Hudson’s store in downtown Detroit.
I feel like going out & buying a fedora right now…
-ghp
I can has cheezburger
Let me preface this by clearly stating that I am not a cat person. I don’t like them thar furry little devil-beasts. I like dogs. Boston Terriers, to be more precise (in case you hadn’t noticed…).
That said, for some inexplicable reason, I just cannot get enough of the lolcats phenomena, as found at I Can Has Cheezburger?
I don’t know exactly why, but these things are just laugh-out-loud funny to me. I think it has something to do with the tortured syntax that is often used by ‘teh kittehs’. Per Wikipedia, “Lolcats are images combining photographs of animals, most frequently cats, with a subjectively humorous and idiosyncratic caption in broken English referred to as Kitty Pidgin, Kitteh, or lolspeak.”
Funny, funny stuff — although, somewhat typically, the Territorial Wife doesn’t get it & just looked at me like I was a nutjob when I showed her some lolcats. I think my sense of humor must be too sophisticated for her… ;^)
-ghp
Orders of magnitude
A thought occurred to me today regarding money, one dealing with orders of magnitude.
How much more money would it take to alter the perception of what “a lot” means?
For example, for me $1 is trivial. The next order of magnitude up is $10. Being honest, that’s not what I would consider “a lot”.
$100? Now that’s starting to be in the territory of “a lot” for me. That said, if I suddenly made enough money for $100 to be my “new” $10 threshold, I don’t think that my life would be all that much different. $1000 would still be “a lot”, and the type of goods that I tend to associate with excessive, hyper-affluence tend to be in the $1000 & above range. That’s not to say that I couldn’t find lots of cool stuff in the $100 to $999 range, but I think you get my overall point.
No, I don’t think that a significant mindset change would occur until I made enough money to treat $1000 like I currently do $10. That would mean that getting a high-end plasma/LCD HDTV would feel like dropping $30 or so does right now. And THAT is a change in worldview.
If $10,000 felt like $10… well, I can’t even imagine what that would do to my perceptions of value and propriety.
Extreme wealth, and the desire for it, truly is a dangerous temptation.
-ghp
3 weddings in 6 months
The focal point of this past weekend was not, like most of country, Thanksgiving - that was just the appetizer, as it were. Rather, the main focus for the Territorial Brood was the third wedding we’ve attended in the past 6 months.
All three have been “family”-related: the first, my wife’s blood relations, the second, my blood relations, and the third was my wife’s life-long best friend - the type of friend that might just as well be family, for the friendship bond is as tight (or tighter) than one shared by siblings.
The three weddings offered a contrasting look at three different points along the contemporary wedding “event” continuum. Not only that, but they also presented some interesting data points with regard to theology. Note: Much has been written elsewhere about the whole “white wedding” industry, so I won’t get in to all that much detail here; suffice it to say that the trend over the past 50-75 years has been to change the focus from celebrating the start of a life together (i.e., the marriage) to that of the spectacle & shindig (i.e., the wedding).
In the middle, both “event” wise as well as theologically, was the first wedding. My wife comes from a Roman Catholic background, thus it was no surprise that there was a full-on Roman Mass. As I wrote more in-depth on it earlier, I’ll not go into detail here; suffice it to say that while I certainly didn’t like or approve of much of the theology underpinning the Roman Mass, I found it refreshing that they took it seriously as a worship service and not just as a ceremony/event. As for the reception, the focus was on the party as a celebration in & of itself, rather than as a celebration of the marriage. Things weren’t way out of whack, mind you, but enough for it to be reasonably obvious to me. Way too loud and a little too big to keep the emphasis on the marriage over & above the wedding. For reference, the bride & groom were 25-26 years old.
At one extreme, then, was the second wedding, this time on my side. The wedding ceremony was held in a Lutheran church, but the service was more of a “performance” in that it didn’t follow a set liturgy, nor did it have a traditional feel to it. There was much contemporary music involved, and the order of service seemed like it had been left to be molded by the aesthetic requirements of the bridal party more than by any theological requirements. The reception was very much one of a party “event” rather than a celebration of the marriage. It was, I must admit, very much in line with the vibe of two recently graduated, early-twentysomethings getting married. Way, WAY loud music. Lots of drinking. A definite frat/sorority party vibe.
Let me say at this point that I’m not (really!) meaning to blithely pass judgment on the choices made by the folks involved; rather, I’m trying to make some observations about some of the larger theological & societal issues at play in & around the context of weddings…
Finally, at the other extreme was the wedding we just went to. Theologically, it was a very traditional Lutheran service. The Rev. Tim Halboth (of Grace Lutheran, Redford, MI, where they have carved busts of Martin Luther and C.F.W. Walther in the sanctuary!) conducted a very nice service. While it wasn’t liturgical in the sense of being an order of service right out of a hymnal, it very much was a Divine Service that was centered on Christ and Him crucified. It was conducted reverently yet joyously. The reception was the most sedate of the three, possibly because it was the smallest, but also reflecting the fact that the bride & groom were in their mid-thirties. It wasn’t horrifically loud, but the music encouraged much dancing, and the celebration was nicely lubricated thanks to the open bar, but there didn’t seem to be the vibe of drinking as an end in & of itself. The tone seemed to be forward looking, celebrating the marriage & future life together of the happy couple.
Heck, I even did something that I haven’t done since my own wedding reception nearly 18 years ago - dance with my wife. I might be biased, but I got to dance with the most beautiful woman in the room! Not only that, but she stole the show with her matron-of-honor toast, totally blowing away the efforts of the best man!! ;^)
About the only bad thing about it was the fact that the groom’s family has this unfortunate attachment to tOSU, which resulted in the playing of the Ohio State fight song. Luckily, it was immediately followed up by The Victors. Normally I’m a Michigan fan, though not of the die-hard type (not since I was a kid, anyway). Being around all those misguided Buckeye fans though, turned my blood maize & blue, and I was compelled to lead the charge in our lusty rendition of the greatest college fight song known to mankind.
It was a nice weekend, one for which I give much thanks, as many good times were had, and much God-given happiness was witnessed and experienced.
-ghp
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