If you want to get ahead get a hat
Our Man in Panama From the Sidelines
You got the message that the golden age of headgear was coming to an end when movie detectives no longer wore fedoras while barging into a suspect’s living room.
Hollywood’s version of newspaper reporters no longer carried “press” cards in their hat bands and ladies stopped sporting hats that looked like a fruit bowl or, in the words of Danny Kaye: “a two roomed flat.” Gone too were veils to hide the march of time or the ravages of overdoses of makeup.
It was the era too when, in Britain, the hat industry in a rearguard action came up with the campaign slogan: If you want to get ahead, get a hat."
This all came to mind when reviewing the plethora of news and views surrounding the upcoming “Royal Wedding”.
If you are not aware of whom I write, you have probably been in a coma or solitary confinement without access to the internet, TV, Radio, Twitter or old fashioned broad sheets or tabloids.
Yes it’s THE wedding of RAF (Royal Air Force) pilot and heir to the British throne, Prince William (Wills) and Kate Middleton, who has humbler antecedents with a “working class” grandfather.
So whether you are a devotee of Royalty dramas or a promoter of the republican (with a small R) ideal, you have been and will be bombarded with details of the happy couples, long friendship, romance, family history, and enough information, snooping and delving, to fill one of those giant sets of Encyclopedia Britannic, gone alas, along with hats.
Among the gems that have surfaced are that British Prime Minister David Cameron and his cabinet banged the table when they heard the news; a London Bishop has been suspended for calling the clamor around the engagement “nauseating tosh” and predicting on his web site that the marriage would last only seven years. And, as a side ba,Kate has been advised to change her Brazilian dress designer whose creations are "too sexy." We have also been told that the father of the bride would be chipping in to help pay for the wedding in times of a straitened economy and Cameron’s idea of creating a special Bank holiday to mark the occasion will cost the British economy six billion pounds, with two four day weekends in a row.
The Banks of course have had several holidays (bailouts in modern terminology) at the taxpayers’ expense, and after announcing Draconian measures to stop the bleeding, the announcement of another holiday for the working stiffs, giving two four day weekends in a row, might not be good timing. Students marching by the thousand across the UK, protesting a tripling of university fees are not impressed.
Australians, constantly on the verge of declaring a republic, and many of whom pride themselves as descendants of convicts, won’t be impressed by the gem that none of the “rough side” of the family will be invited to the April 29 ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
In the United States, a country whose leaders once signed a Declaration of Independence from royalty, the event is getting widespread coverage. Politics aside, watch the rush in Washington to get seats in the Abbey.
The good news is that like the coronation of King George V1 when Britain was in the midst of the Great Depression and Queen Elizabeth’s wedding to Prince Philip in 1947 and her coronation in 1953, when the country was struggling to recover from World War II, people will likely forget the cost, and celebrate a nation wide party. All the world loves a wedding, and fairy stories.
In Panama, British expats will be hoping the government back ‘ome, will loosen the purse strings enough to allow for a small toast to the happy couple.
And oh! What’s all this got to do with hats? In scouting the Royalty coverage I spotted the picture above As Kate had opined that becoming part of the Royal Family would be a daunting task, I wondered if the Could the hat was meant to be a protection against the spotlight that will be on her for the rest of her life. or a precursor of fashion flair in the Royal entourage.
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