I'm not usually one for hat commentaries -- most hats look awful on me, and you know what they say about people in glass houses -- but I saw a hat this weekend that's worthy of note (a near-replica of which appears here), as it manages to inexplicably combine two contradictory hunting-hat ambitions: 1) Camoflage, the holy grail of hunting garb, a pattern that allows the wearer to stealthily disappear into the bush and brush and wait for prey. The goal of camo? To avoid being seen.
2) Safety Orange, the day-glo eyesore that announces to fellow hunters, "I am not prey, as is made obvious by my rarely-seen-in-nature-color outwear." The goal of safety orange? To ensure that you are seen.
Therein lies my confusion with this self-contradictory chapeau: orange camo? This is failed functionality at its best---in fact, I can't even think of an apt analogy: A sign that says "stay back" in a font so small you have to get close to read it? A restraining order written with invisible ink? Perhaps there is a legitimate reason, but it seems to me that it's simply a gratuitous use of hunting cliches. Camo says, "hunting enthusiast"; orange says "hunting safety"---so what does orange camo say? "Hunting accident."
1 comment:
~n declined to buy a laptop from a probable speed-freek in such a hat, and was aggressively hassled over it, though I believe the pattern was more along the lines of "safety orange flames" making the dude's head look like it was on fire -- which it was!
Post a Comment