A man wears a Mad Hatter costume. The character was made famous by Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson).
I saw the following conversation on Twitter today.
“We’re all mad as hatters here.”
“What even is a hatter, anyway? And what are they always mad about?”
“A hatter is someone who sells and makes hats for a living.”
“Hatters aren’t angry; they’re insane. Felt (used in hats) in the 18th and 19th centuries contained mercury.”
“Mercury poisoning in the blood would often drive hatters literally insane, hence the phrase ‘mad as a hatter.'”
“And now you know the rest of the story.”
This conversation includes references to a number of things that I really like. For one thing, “We’re all as mad as hatters here.” is a quote from a Tom Waits song, although I don’t remember exactly which one.
It’s also an allusion to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, a wonderful children’s book. My nieces had a lovely argument with a bookstore-owning friend of mine who explained to them both what the real name of the book was. They insisted it was just Alice in Wonderland. We eventually had to find a physical copy of the book to prove the girls wrong, much to their nine-year-old chagrin.
Also, I like hats. I wish hats would come back into vogue, for women and for men. It’s probably not going to happen.
And when I say hats, I mean hats, not ballcaps. They’re not the same thing.
I also saw a blog post from Wil Wheaton not long ago where he mentions that any excuse to wear an ascot is good enough. I saw someone tweet at him that you don’t NEED an excuse to wear an ascot, and that if you don’t believe it, just ask Peter Bogdanovich, who wears his ascot early and often. (Bogdanovich is awesome, by the way. His movies are great, but his discussions of movie history and his book recommending 52 classic movies, one for each week of the year, is also great.)
History is cool too, and so was Paul Harvey. Well, Paul Harvey was sorta cool, and that’s where the quote from the end of the conversation came from. Harvey used to end his broadcasts by saying, “And now you know (dramatic pause)…the REST of the story.”
And now, dear reader, so do you.
