Mark Liberman has a Log post taking the hapless NY Times science writer Nicholas Wade out behind the woodshed for a well-deserved thrashing in regard to his credulous reporting of the "language gene" (a real thing even if the popular name is misleading) and the "god gene" (not a real thing); I was pushed over the edge into blogging it by his conclusion:
The beauty part is the universality of this argument. My current favorite application leads us to postulate the Hat Gene. [...] Think of the manifold advantages of head-coverings to paleolithic hunter-gatherers, and the near-universality of head coverings among human groups at all subsequent stages of development — the Hat Gene hypothesis is a winner all around.It sure is, and now, when anyone asks me why I always wear headgear when I'm outside, I can just say "It's genetic." Posted by languagehat at November 15, 2009 08:23 PM
Hmm. Maybe we're related then. Though both of my parents must have had it since I also wear hats indoors.
Posted by: Kellen Parker at November 15, 2009 10:26 PMIn that case, it's possible to grow a new gene, since I started wearing a hat (outdoors) after I started reading this blog.
Posted by: Nijma at November 15, 2009 10:45 PMMy own hat gene had to be suppressed by social convention for many years, but this past summer I was able to fully express it by buying and wearing a large sunhat on all possible occasions, including sometimes indoors.
Posted by: marie-lucie at November 15, 2009 10:51 PMObviously I am merely a mutated chimpanzee, in that case, since I plainly lack the Hat Gene in all its forms.
Posted by: John Cowan at November 15, 2009 11:14 PMI wish I had the hat gene. With milliners an extinct species here, I can't get a hat big enough for my head.
Posted by: Stuart at November 16, 2009 12:23 AMAre descriptivist and prescriptivist genes textilely compatible? Can nucleic fabric in either be used to patch holes in the arguments, or at least the tolerance for argument, of the other?
Posted by: deadgod at November 16, 2009 12:57 AMCan the hat gene express itself elsewhere than the scalp? Like on a foot, or a golf club, or a sewing finger?
Posted by: deadgod at November 16, 2009 12:58 AMWasn't Rochester Wedding Music a W. H. Auden poem?
Posted by: Victor Latrine at November 16, 2009 05:20 AMStuart : Try an Akubra.
Are descriptivist and prescriptivist genes textilely compatible?Yes, but it's scripturally unsound, cf. ass and oxen pulling together. Posted by: Sili at November 16, 2009 06:42 AM
Wot abaht the baseball cap gene? Is it recessive or dominant?
Posted by: dearieme at November 16, 2009 06:53 AMStuart, there is also the Canadian "Tilley hat", made in 13 sizes and several styles.
Posted by: marie-lucie at November 16, 2009 07:45 AMThe Tilley hat used to be available by mail order from the New Yorker, probably still is.
Posted by: A.J.P. Megkoronáz at November 16, 2009 07:55 AMdearime - Wot abaht the baseball cap gene? Is it recessive or dominant?
It's only recessive if you're wearing it backwards,
Posted by: Terry Collmann at November 16, 2009 09:15 AMDoes anyone know of the first visual image of someone wearing a baseball cap backwards? The farthest back I can get in memory is The Little Rascals - I think one of them wore his cap recessively.
Posted by: Grumbly Stu at November 16, 2009 11:48 AMAbraham Lincoln wore one to his inauguration as president. In those days it was a signal that that you were gay.
Posted by: A.J.P. Megkoronáz at November 16, 2009 12:21 PMWhoops. Sorry, Language! (He doesn't believe the evidence that Lincoln was gay.)
Posted by: A.J.P. Megkoronáz at November 16, 2009 12:24 PMHe was actually quite jolly until his wife went mad.
Posted by: language hat at November 16, 2009 01:02 PMStuart, google "Tilley Endurables" for the Tilley Hat(s). They ship internationally.
Posted by: marie-lucie at November 16, 2009 01:05 PMTilley with hats, including backwards baseball.
Posted by: empty at November 16, 2009 02:19 PMmarie lucie, mercy buckets for the link to tilley's. they really seem like a viable answer. Our fierce Aotearoa sun makes a hat pretty essential these days, so it's nice to find a likely solution. Molto danke.
Posted by: Stuart at November 16, 2009 03:55 PMYou are welcome, Stuart. I have one myself. They are supposed to last forever too.
Posted by: marie-lucie at November 16, 2009 05:47 PMI'd be pretty mad too if my husband was gay (assuming I wasn't a man).
Posted by: A.J.P. Megkoronáz at November 16, 2009 06:35 PM(assuming I wasn't a man)
Time for a little Wodehouse. (From "What ho, Jeeves", Ch. 2)
"But you aren't a male newt."
"I wish I were. Do you know how a male newt proposes, Bertie? He just stands in front of the female newt vibrating his tail and bending his body in a semi-circle. I could do that on my head. No, you wouldn't find me grousing if I were a male newt."
"But if you were a male newt, Madeline Bassett wouldn't look at you. Not with the eye of love, I mean."
"She would, if she were a female newt."
"But she isn't a female newt."
"No, but suppose she was."
"Well, if she was, you wouldn't be in love with her."
"Yes, I would, if I were a male newt."
A slight throbbing about the temples told me that this discussion had reached saturation point.
Posted by: empty at November 16, 2009 07:45 PM"Time for a little Wodehouse."
It is ALWAYS time for a little Wodehouse.
Posted by: Stuart at November 16, 2009 08:14 PMDoes anyone know of the first visual image of someone wearing a baseball cap backwards?
I'll make no such claim, but here's King Kelly as a baby from 1887.
Posted by: MMcM at November 16, 2009 08:34 PMNice find, but when a catcher wears the cap backwards it's not backwards.
Posted by: empty at November 16, 2009 08:38 PMSir Bedevere: What makes you think she's a witch?
Peasant 3: Well, she turned me into a newt!
Sir Bedevere: A newt?
Peasant 3: [meekly after a long pause] ... I got better.
Posted by: John Emerson at November 16, 2009 09:00 PMmutant gene....
Posted by: ignoramus at November 16, 2009 10:38 PMThe Tilley TH8 comes in four sizes and has two cords, front and back, to make sure it stays on, even in a windstorm. The sweatband is very comfortable and the hat is well balanced and feels suitably luxurious.The Tilley TH8 is pretty pricey, but well, life really can look better from under the brim of a beautiful hat.The hat is seriously constructed, durable and UV protective.
[I usually delete spam, but how can I delete this charming ad? I eliminated the URL and am leaving it at that. --LH]
Posted by: tilley hats at December 28, 2009 05:21 AM