By CJ Tiernan It’s my estimation that when James P. Hat invented the first hat over two hundred years ago, he rested on a park bench, on a warm and sunny day, with his brow shaded, and said, “ahhh. That’s nice.” Now, I wasn’t there, I’m just guessing. Since then, the hat industry exploded. You can’t throw a stick of dynamite these days without hitting a haberdashery. Tall hats, short hats, soft hats, hard hats, there are so many hats you could put a hat on a hat (I mean, yo

By CJ Tiernan Nicknames of historical figures are curious. For instance, did all the members of his cabinet refer to Abraham Lincoln as “Honest Abe?” Did he even like that nickname? Did they just whisper it in halls of the parliament building or wherever it is they did whatever they did or were they actually saying it to his face? Did that nickname even exist, or was it manufactured after he, so to speak, bit the bullet? I don’t know whether some of these nicknames were cra