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Whoopee Jughead Hat History

I don't wear a lot of hats, literally. But, hats are always interesting. Partly because people don't wear them often any more. People who do wear hats, unless they're hiding baldness, do seem more interesting, just because they chose to wear a hat. I was a kid when the Archie comics were around, long before the Riverdale TV series. But, the Jughead hat began before Archie and his comics. It is often called a whoopee hat.

The style is called a whoopee cap and, believe it or not, it was insanely popular among young people when Jughead made his comic book debut in 1941. Turns out, factory workers used to invert their felt fedoras and chop off the brims so their eye sight wouldn't be restricted while working. When they got new hats, they'd pass their old hat down to their kids and the crude fedora hack actually became trendy among their kids.

Quoted from Seventeen Magazine online.

Most of the whoopee hats I find online are crochet or knit now. An authentic hat would be made from felt, a thicker felt than I could find in craft shops. To make a whoopee hat now you would need to search for a better kind of felt, one that might even be washable a few times (at least) before it fell apart. Finding a better grade of felt would be harder than finding a pattern (if you need one) to make the hat. Instead, you might buy (try a thrift store) a felt hat with a brim you can cut, turn it inside out and wear a real whoopee/ Jughead hat you created yourself. Add your own pins or brooches to it. Now that you're a hat maker, think of other styles to work on and wear. Like the cloche hat from the 1920's or some Edwardian hats, romantic and elaborate but all made with felt. Maybe fascinators, all the hat trimmings without the hat (sort of). Maybe a more structured top hat with fancy trimmings leftover from those fascinators. Soon you will become a regular milliner/ hat designer and maker.

Here are some patterns I found, for your Mad Hatter inspiration.

Word - Mise en Place

A phrase more than a new word for me. But, as read in the Instagram account of Jennifer Garner (US celebrity) of all places. She's been making some cooking video posts and this was a French phrase she used in one of them. I looked it up and found:

The preparations to cook, having the ingredients ready, such as cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components that are required for the menu and recipes ingredients measured out, washed, chopped and placed in individual bowls; and equipment such as spatulas and blenders prepared, and oven preheated.

My Mother taught us to cook this way. It makes things much simpler. No finding out you are missing an ingredient at the last minute, for one thing. I use the same idea in process of elimination way as I cook so things are put away and I don't have everything to clean up at the end.

Magic and Science Through history, science and magic, like science and…

Magic and Science

Through history, science and magic, like science and religion, have at been at best strange bedfellows and at worst bitter enemies. The battle lines have been drawn with the twin swords of rationality and measurability. On one side of the line stand those things scientists claim we understand, like evolution and matter. On the other side lie the things that science does not want to or know how to explain, such as god and magic.

Somewhat ironically, while the majority of scientists do have religions beliefs, a large number of scientists (probably a majority, though we know of no studies on this) vehemently believe there is no such thing as magic. Some scientists (notably Carl Sagan) go so far as to castigate religion as well because of its ties to the mystical, magical, or supposedly inexplicable. This position seems in some ways more consistent, but neither one takes into account one important fact.

Science doesn't have all the answers. Almost every scientist will admit this, when you push them into the unexplored corners of their own specialty. Physicists don't know why they can't find a magnetic monopole. Biologists don't really know what happened in the evolution from apes to humans. Astrophysicists don't know whether the universe will expand forever or collapse back on itself. Psychologists haven't got a clue about how most of the things our brains do for us happen. We personally find it amazing, then, that so many scientists are happy to declare as a fact that there is no such thing as magic or god.

It's not just that everybody's a critic... suddenly everybody's an expert too, in a field that very few people have really spent any time studying. Fortunately, there are some exceptions, or we'd have nothing interesting to present on this page. Among people who consider themselves scientists (rather than philosophers, or theologists, for example), there are two particular groups who are delving into the real questions. And despite one coming from orthodox science and the other often disrespectfully being called "pseudoscience," they seem to be converging on some interesting common questions.

The two fields we're referring to here are cognitive science and parapsychology. An interesting third voice has recently come from the medical community, who often are forced to approach things from a perspective that is more pragmatic than scientific.

Cognitive science is generally interested in understanding how the human mind works, but seems to keep butting up against the question of consciousness. What makes us conscious? How does this perception of consciousness differ (or how is it similar to) our ordinary perceptive modes?

Parapsychology studies powers of the mind that seem to lie outside the normal sphere of physical influence. Telepathy, precognition, and telekinesis are the main areas of study. But lately parapsychologists have been asking questions about consciousness as well. How do states of consciousness affect parapsychological effects? How do consciousnesses interact when multiple individuals combine their efforts or oppose each other.

Medicine, in contrast, is largely interested in mechanisms for healing. Within this there is both a conventional and a mystical track. Conventional medicine accepts that the human mind has a capacity for enhancing the healing process, and even accepts that belief systems including religion and magic can offer a way to convince the mind to help heal the body. However, there is also a small group within the conventional medical community (and a much larger group outside conventional medicine) that believes that there can be direct magical effects by another individual on the healing process. Bill Moyers' book and PBS special Healing and the Mind provides a nice introduction to some of the issues. Dr. Larry Dossey has also written a number of books about the subject.

I'm not sure who originally posted this. The site it came from was among many submitted to the Wiccan Online Book of Shadows category at the Open Directory Project, now Curlie. I'm an editor there, the last standing editor in the Pagan category after all these years.

I really believe in the science of Pagan and Wiccan ideas more than the religion. I even think the religion itself is based on a science, a psychological science about people being part of a group and creating explanations for things and believing in something together. No doubt there are lots of resources for this idea, other than myself. I'm quoting the above post because I don't often find others having much to say about Wicca/ Magic and science. Thank you to whoever posted it.

Give Yourself a Break

For those who can't see the image: "Do at least one stupid thing today. Even if it isn't on purpose. Don't be too good, or too correct or too perfect. Crack at least one joke too."

Wrote this for my niece today.

Facebook is Cracking Up

I posted this to Facebook a few minutes ago. Almost instantly it was pulled off the site as spam. The bot claims I'm being misleading, etc.

More than anything else... This may explain how my Mother's posts don't appear when she's sure she sent them to me. Thanks for protecting me from my 80 year old Mother, Facebook.

I think this is a clear sign that its time for me to stop using Facebook. My Mother just isn't that dangerous any more. I didn't think long dead silent movie stars were either.