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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Why Americans Laugh when the Pope Wears a Red Hat



Knew I could find the right picture. Philip over at Carpe Canem probably thought I was kidding when I mentioned the pope's saturno makes most Americans think of a kid's cowboy hat gone wrong.

(Should we tell him or not? Nah....)

Geez, a blind man could spot it in a New York minute.
.

16 comments:

Phil said...

Howdy, Popey!

Clearly, the Holy Father is reaching out to followers of the cult of Spaghetti Westerns.

Didn't John Wayne convert to Catholicism?

Stephen said...

The first thing it made me think of, actually, was the Red Hat Society...

gemoftheocean said...

You know, I think I heard it was a deathbed confession, now you mention it! I had a similar version of the hat in white.

swissmiss said...

Cute pic, Karen! I think I have one like it somewhere...at least every kid should.

I guess it wasn't just me that thought this was an odd choice for the Pope. He definitely has his own sense of style.

John Wayne is "da man" and did convert. One of my favorite John Wayne quotes (besides "Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid.”)
“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.”
From his Playboy interview...of all things!

gemoftheocean said...

! I've seen a few Red Hat Society Ladies, and I've seen a place they sold the hats -- a few definitely had a Dale Evans twang to them. [Dale Evans was Roy Roger's wife and partner in a lot of films, then in 50s-60s kids TV series which ran for quite a number of years. Roy was a singing cowboy.] Millions of kids knew the song "Happy Trails to You."

gemoftheocean said...

Swiss: great words from "The Duke."
[Americans have other royalty and nobility too. Elvis "the king." Duke Ellington, Duke Snyder.]

The Digital Hairshirt said...

Karen:

I can't recall if you were also one of the female bloggers joining my group of ladies where we take a solmen vow to SHOOT LIKE A SICK DOG any other member of the group if spotted succumbing to wearing a red hat and a purple dress when we're over 50.

Can I put you down, m'dear . . .?

The Digital Hairshirt said...

Karen:

OK - I've posted a "sign up" on my blog.

gemoftheocean said...

Digi, you betcha. Though I do have a pair of red hat slippers. They don't count do they? They don't make it outside the boudoir.

Karen

Adrienne said...

If you are over 50 you can only wear lavender. You have to be over 60 to wear purple.

I have also requested to be shot if I come home in a lime green polyester pant suit worn with lace up white shoes.

Anonymous said...

I like the Pope's red Saturno, matches his red shoes--but if he starts wearing purple at the same time--well then that will be a problem!

And hey, if it looks like a young kids cowboy hat--oh, well--maybe he's just a kid at heart.

gemoftheocean said...

Tara, maybe the kid just looks like the pope. EXCELLENT point re: "no purple vestments and red hats!" I have to say it was pure serendipity that the pope's hat and the kid's hat were both angled "just so" -- had I *tried* to look for that specifically, I'd have never found it!

Karen

gemoftheocean said...

Adrienne, are you sure you have to be sixty for the full on purple? It thought the lavender was for over 40s. :-D I passed the 50 watermark already. I'm still treading water.

You're right about lime green polyester. (In fact any polyester, but we'll leave it to that particular "unfortunate" combination.) I don't think any woman over the age of 5 could be safely seen in such an outfit.

I do have a linen not-quite-lime green shirt to wear with my (also not polyester) go to hell pants. I don't think anything counts if you are wearing go-t0-hell-pants. Like the basic black cocktail dress, it's sort of a "must have."

If you want to be bemused by who hits your blog, just have a post called "go to hell pants" and write whatever. You'll be amazed to find every week you get a few hits on that thread from off the wall places. (Including, in my case, the office of the US congressional Sergeant of Arms! Go figure. I don't usually analyze much of my "traffic" in detail, though I always take a look at the map because I adore maps and it's fun to see where people posted from.)

Stephen said...

Re: lime green - in the 70s, my Dad bought a lime green car. It was a Saab 95, it was possibly the ugliest car you've ever seen (which, actually, was better than any car alarm when it came to stopping it from being stolen), and he liked the colour so much that he painted the garage door and the gables on the house the same colour.

Phil said...

In Britain, during the '70s, there was a craze for avocado green bathroom suites. Can you believe it?!

gemoftheocean said...

Philip, for a while there in the late 60s and 70s we had a run on avocado colored kitchen appliances. In the 50s kitchens had pink/black tile.

Stephen. That does sound like a contestant for ugly car. One of my cousins had a purple Gremlin. But he was in college at the time, so maybe that mitigates things.

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