Essay: In Praise of Serious Hats

A hat has the effect of making the human head a kind of residence. It gives the brain a dome and porch roof, and a strange little portable sense of place. It is a wonderful spot to look out from under, a sort of individual estate. A man feels at home in a hat, established. But wearing a hat is also like having the FBI set you up with a new identity in a different city. It can change you.

The subject here is the serious hat. Not the "fun" hat. Not the Greek fisherman's hat. The writer Roy Blount Jr. has...