You do realise that there's a world outside the United States, right? And that in Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, all the other culturally similar countries, they also stopped wearing hats sometime in the 1950s and 60s? That public transport remains the main way for (say) Londoners to get to work, and yet that the hat slowly vanished from the heads of Londoners over roughly the same period that it vanished from the heads of Los Angelinos?
I know this is just one of your employees' blogs, and I know it very likely doesn't represent the official stance of National Public Radio on hat-wearing, globalism or international politics. I also happen to agree with the parent that this theory is a bit of a stretch, but hey...that's life.
That said, I'd like to thank you for writing anything about this subject at all, because without you folks, I'm reasonably sure I wouldn't be thinking about hat-wearing on a sunny Saturday afternoon. So, nutty or not, thanks for providing some mind-expanding reading material. I'll try not to extrapolate this light bit of reading into a narrative about your awareness of the world at large.
That said, the point should at least have been addressed.
edit: on further thought, hats also used to be seen as something to wear with suits, and as people wore less in the way of suit-like clothing, hats went too. In more recent times, hats are used more and more with other kinds of clothing - if you see someone wearing a fedora in Australia, it's much more likely they're young and wearing casual clothing than someone in business wearing a suit.
Yeah, you guys are really free thinkers. And your kids look great covered in cancer-causing toxic waste wearing stupid ass straw hats.
It's hard to drive when you're tired.
Not everybody in Australia appreciates cigarette smoke.
Most people here don't like hooning, but "they" won't "steal" your car for it. It might, however, be confiscated.
I don't know of the law at home, but workplace health and safety is taken very seriously here. Not wearing safety gear can get you and your employer in quite a bit of trouble.
Try to be a little more constructive instead of mocking Australians.
Edit: The smoking law really is fantastic by the way, when people obey it. As a kid, I remember having to walk through 20 metres of cigarette smoke to get into a shopping centre. It was putrid. I don't mind people smoking, but the smoke buildup outside shops wasn't good.
* I should just edit this to say that all the coolest Australians I met in a year of travel were 65 or older, smoked like chimneys, and thought everyone under 30 in their country was an unintelligible fool. They lived in places like Hay, Tenterfield and Dubbo. I'd like to give a tip of the hat to John in Inverell, who bless him is the epitome of what your country was and should be. Other than your old fellas, it's a joke.
Sincerely,
The small-minded, brainless scoundrels and jokes of Australia.
PS, the racism here can be pretty bad, I'll give you that. Things are improving, but not as fast as they ought to.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience travelling here, and there are problems here as everywhere. But just making things up and spitting them out with vitriol doesn't do anyone any favours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoon#Anti-hoon_legislation_in_A...
Check out the photo next to the section heading. Now imagine this happening late at night in the street outside your house, 2-3 nights a week, every week, sustained for half an hour or more, with collections of aggressive, macho men associated with it. At best it's a public nuisance, and frequently it scares residents. It's not just 'squeaky brakes'.
You've clearly got zero idea of what you're talking about, and are just making stuff up to grind an axe, for some unclear reason.
The rule didn't exist in high school though, so nearly everybody stopped using them.
I think it has more to do with class in the UK. With each generation, the class division has faded, and to a degree, hats were one way of advertising your class. Even today, baseball caps are seen as part of the uniform of the "underclass" (that is, when they aren't worn by sports people).
It's an intriguing idea, certainly, but obviously without any empirical validation (that's just how it is, that doesn't mean it's not allowed or fun to speculate about).