Umm, okay, Mr. Siegel...

Father and Daughter, originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.

Lee Siegel of The New Republic rails against baseball caps because they block the light on the Upper West Side.

Comments

[Jim S.]

I haven't read a lot of Lee Siegel's work, so I'll ask. Was he always like this, or did some creature recently lay eggs in his brain?

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

Oh, well he's probably seen that episode of The Sopranos. Seen that one? Tony Soprano is in a posh restaurant, and spies a guy wearing a baseball cap. He upbraids the guy and tells him it's inappropriate for the restaurant. The guy gives him attitude and says, "I ain't takin' it off." Tony stands there, glowering, and the guy finally senses that a vicious beating will soon obtain, and gets worried, and takes off the cap. I'm willing to bet that your Mr. Siegel saw the episode, and felt justified in taking the vinegar out of the baseball caps.

[Ron]

I have no idea who Lee Seigel is but hooray, someone finally says something about the world plague of stupid baseball hats. Centuries-long traditions of marvellous hats of all kinds for both men and women and all one sees everywhere is stupid baseball hats with commercial logos. puhleeze!

[julia]

Yeah, that there is an affectation of insouciance if ever I did see one.

Yup.

[Rasselas]

I've liked several pieces of criticism that Siegel has written in the past, so it irritates me to see him getting the negative one of the only two kinds of attention blogs can provide.

I can only hope that in a couple of hours the Golden Horde will turn their sights once again to Ana Marie Cox, for the sin of having used the word "strident" in her NYTBR review of Katha Pollitt's latest collection.

[The Phantom, Brooklyn, New York]

OK, that settles it. I'm going to Zabar's this weekend, and am wearing a baseball cap.

The one and only universal fashion accessory whether it by Kyoto, Australia, Prague, the US, Capetown--a New York Yankees baseball cap. Its beauty is in its simplicity. It's everywhere.

[¡El Gato Negro!]

so it irritates me to see him getting the negative one of the only two kinds of attention blogs can provide.

Ohhhhh, si, why would someone who has referred to los bloggerros as "fascism with a Microsoft face" and "blogofascists" deserve any kind of negative attention to hees work?

"Heaven forfend", y tambien "Get me my clutching pearls, I think I can make just it to the fainting couch", no?

so.

[verbatim]

Interesting. I think Mr. Siegel is overestimating the amount of forethought that goes into selecting the ballcap as the accessory du jour. People are not equating their lives with a game, they're dressing like the people they want to be more like (other successful people, that is, not baseball players or farm labourers). If culturally iconic people started wearing their underpants on the outside, then Mr. Seigel would begin to see that in restaurants too. What he is really railing against is the fact that most people give almost no thought to their choices in a society where meaning rarely goes further than commodity value.

The interesting thing about, say, the John Deere hat-wearer in the attached photo is that the Ironic Ballcap is no longer even slightly ironic since it became fashionable. She may not even realize that, at the beginning of the "ironic" trend, urbanites wore such things to mock those who wore them without irony. It was not a friendly appropriation. When I was in law school (a few years ago now), ballcap-wearers fell into two broad categories -- Urban Hipsters and Conspicuous Rednecks. The guys from the interior of the province wore their ballcaps proudly, all the time, probably in the shower or when swimming; the hipsters when their outfit required it.

(Verbatim looks at all he's written)

...Well, thanks for this wonderful diversion from working on my thesis proposal. Perhaps if a moral analysis of special obligations in the advocacy context doesn't pan out, I can switch to a sociological exploration of hats as post-inductrial cultural artifacts. Or something.

[mijnheer]

Baseball caps should be allowed only on baseball players or on farmers who are riding their tractors. For everyone else, I agree: the guillotine! And then there are those people who say "No problem" instead of "You're welcome." (I wasn't suggesting it was a problem, you idiot. But then again, perhaps giving me the correct change was a bit of a challenge for you. Okay, I'll let you go this time.)

[Douglas, Friend of Osho]

Mijnheer, je ben' shijtkop. What should I wear at the ballgame, a wimple? I've been following baseball for 35 years. I promise not to wear my fitted Giants hat indoors. Outdoors, I'll be sure to wear it only in season, switching to a beret after the playoffs. Good enough for you? You're welcome, then, or should I say alstublieft?

[mijnheer]

Okay, okay, if you're at the ballpark you may wear a baseball cap and escape the guillotine. Goed zo!

[Matt McIrvin]

I have a rule when reading cultural criticism, which is that when the author starts complaining about grown men wearing short pants, I'm allowed to tune out.

This may be another one. Though I still say people who shield their heads with baseball caps are asking for cancer of the ears.

[Matt McIrvin]

...Maybe not her, though.