fashion week (a point of view) or the kids played nice so mommy got to read

Yesterday was quite lovely. It was cool enough in the evening to wear a light jacket, the mosquitoes are dying off (oh happy day), and the kids were playing nice....which means mommy got to read...outside! With my big steaming cup of coffee and a book in hand, I read for a good solid half hour before I had to break up an argument. The only other interruptions were to eat "salads" (grass & moss) with a stick fork that the girls kindly provided for me. For the evenings reading pleasure I opted for a comedy, a book of Ogden Nash's collected verse "The Face is Familiar". I thought the following poem was an ideal one to share during the hub-bub of fashion weeks, and I wonder what Mr. Nash would think of all the fashionable headgear that's popping up these days.

THE DROP OF A HAT

OGDEN NASH

Darling, what is that?

That, angel, is a hat.

Are you positve? Are you certain?

Are you sure it's not a curtain?

Shall you really place your head in it?

How's for keeping cake or bread in it?

Do not wear it on your head;

Find some other use instead.

Say a cloth for drying dishes,

Or a net for catching fishes,

Or a veil by night to veto

The bill of the mosquito?

Darling, what is that?

Are you sure it is a hat?

And if so, what was the matter

With the hatter?

Was he troubled? Was he ill?

Was he laughing fit to kill?

Oh what was on his mind

As he designed?

Had he gone without his supper?

Was he dressing in an upper?

Did he plot a wily plan

To annoy his fellow man?

Is its aspect, rear and frontal,

Intended to disgruntle,

Or was it accidental

And is he now repental?

Are memoirs of the brim

Now agony to him?

Do visions of the crown

Drag his spirits down?

Oh, may the Furies batter

That eleven-fingered hatter!

May doom and gloom enswaddle

The creator of the model!

I hope he made a lot of them

That dozens he has got of them;

I hope he has a harem,

And all his spouses warem.