2012.06.19 — A Blast of Fushigis* — Time to Clear the Sticky Note Pile (2)

Egad! And it's hats off to you, today. The *fushigis have accelerated again, and instead of clearing the back log today's blog begins by jotting down the latest head scratchers.

[2012.06.18 ~4:30pm] The seed event was my enjoying a, for me very rare, guy's afternoon. For my second time I met up after work with my friend and local butcher, W. In the last few years we've gotten to know each other over his display counter at a local shop. Without exaggeration, W's small corner of the shop is as clean as any I've seen. And the quality of the meats and cheeses he brings in are as good as I've ever got.

Anyway, after years of over the counter chit chat we decided it was time to get away from phones and work. We met up for coffee and a genial chat about anything and everything. W has a history in the city that is broad, diverse, and fascinating! And we had so much fun that Monday that we agreed to do this again. We did, and it was again great fun. He knows just about everyone!

Day B4 Inauguration with Reporters 

In one of his stories he expressed his regret that the resurgence of the popularity in men's hats didn't quite make it. He commented that it was the inauguration of JFK that began the demise of men's hats, because he was the first president sworn into office hatless. W then elaborated an amusing story about his father's beautiful sheared white beaver skin hat. (W has it, and wears it on special occasions, his head being the exact same size as his father's.)

[2012.06.19 ~5:30am] NR and I talked books, yesterday, and he made me feel a we bit guilty that I hadn't started reading yet a book he recommended a few months ago, and which I almost immediately bought. It has been sitting in my to-read pile, untouched but not forgotten, as I have been reading too much Chomsky, and now Moby Dick and other stuff.

So, this morning, I took a few minutes to at least break open Three Day Road. I laughed when I read the following, on page 4:

I stand back in the shadow of the shelter and watch as the people in front of me tense, then move closer to the track as it approaches, not further away as I would have expected. The women in the crowd look nothing like me, wear long dresses made of too much material and big hats. The hold bowed cloth shields above their heads. The men are dressed in black and brown and grey suits, and the shoes upon their feet are shiny, so shiny that I wonder what kind of animal the leather has come from. All the men wear hats, too. All these people wearing hats in summer. I do not understand much of the wemistikoshiw.

Typical fushigi, initially not quite worth blogging, but almost.

[2012.06.19 2:45pm] So why blog it? Well, because today, a Tuesday, ML had me stop in for take away. This was a first for a Tuesday. We have take away fairly often, but normally Fridays, to end the week, or sometimes Thursdays. So, as I usually do while waiting for the food to be cooked and packaged, I work on the crossword from The Province newspaper.
If they are slow, and I am fast, I have been known to finish the Word Jumble game and most of the crossword. Today's word jumble completed the fushigi because the second clue was B E Y R D, which, in English, translates as 'Derby' a kind of men's hat.

Derby Definition (on-line somewhere):

der·by (dûrb; British därb) n. pl. der·bies
1. Sports: Any of various annual horse races, especially for three-year-olds.
2. Sports: A formal race usually having an open field of contestants: a motorcycle derby.
3. A stiff felt hat with a round crown and a narrow, curved brim. [AKA a Bowler.]

[Addendum 2012.06.20]
This morning began with sunshine blasting into our office! The first time in what seems like weeks. And, as I do when that happens, I leave the blinds up and don my Tommy Hilfiger baseball cap (some weird promotional gift years ago) to enable me to see the screen. [Interestingly enough, when I went blogging to find an image of my particular cap, I was unable to find it, despite finding dozens of Hilfiger baseball caps.]

@ 7:15 MR came by to ask me about the shared car pool in our group. With the recent office shuffle, MR is new to our group although we've worked together as instructors and as floor support for the department for almost ten years. MR made a typically cheeky kind of comment about the hat — it being quite likely she's never seen me wear it before, given that sunny mornings are the only time I do at the office, that they don't happen too often since moving to the new office last year, and that MR's office is half way across the building from my desk.

@ 10:00, after I'd removed it because the sun had moved off the window, NR commented about the dent in my head left behind by the hat. Then he pointed out that MR's comment may constitute a fushigi.

And, as you can tell, I did add it as a fushigi, but only in part because he suggested it. The last push to make it bloggable was when, @ 11:00 am, BC commented on my not wearing the hat. His comment initiated a discussion about the problem shorn heads have with displaying hat marks in their heads.

In the year+ that we've worked in this office, and have been wearing a hat on sunny days, this is the first day I have had any extended jokes or comments. Until now almost complete silence, as its function is plainly evident by how the sun shines in the window onto my desk.

NOTE: the last image is from a photograph by Christian Apuena Cravo. If you like it, please visit his on-line photo gallery display at Artnet.com.