Hot damn, that is the coolest spruce-root hat I've ever seen.  They'll never
make one of those out of Dryvit, no matter how much they improve it.

Chris will no doubt cry his aesthetic eyes out over that hat, and  will
probably still be crying by Pignic time. Maybe everybody better bring a box
of Kleenex  so he has enough.

By the way, for those of you who may be interested (if not on the edges of
your seats), the Waspophilic Confederate stood up your Humor  Czar this
morning, on the field of honor.  I saw no sign of him (or dropped lace,
either, to my greater disappointment) when I arrived  at Weehawken at dawn;
and  he had the effrontery to leave me a phone message three hours later
--from Brooklyn, yet, two islands away--asking where the hell I was.  I'm
sure you all share my outrage.

Ralph