Tuesday, February 9, 2016

A Wondrous Thing


Socrates, when visiting the agora, the great marketplace of Athens, and seeing all the things offered for sale, once exclaimed, “How many things there are that I can do without!”  I feel much the same when receiving a Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue, as I did today. And this item is perhaps the one I can do without the most. When I first looked at the picture, which fails to convey any sense of scale, I thought it a strange vehicle running on two wheels. I find, however, that it is a special kind of hat. As for what it is alleged to do, I wonder that buyers—if any there be—are not also furnished with some bottles of snake oil and a deed to the Brooklyn Bridge. And the price… But I suppose it is good for our economy that there exist mechanisms for separating some money from foolish millionaires.