Forget the snow, the worst thing about winter is the stupid hats we wear

OK, fair enough - but it's warm!
Mike Ball | Contributor
It’s the stupid winter hats.
Now, we are all aware of the double-blind scientific studies conducted by generations of Midwestern mothers which prove at least 170% of your body heat escapes through your head. Apparently all that heat erupts right through your hair like a roman candle, and once it’s all gone you “catch your death of cold.”
According to this carefully-documented research, a hat serves as a sort of “body heat bottle cap.” As a result, every Midwestern child grows up duty-bound to keep some kind of lid twisted onto his or her head from Thanksgiving through about a week before Easter.
As you have probably already noticed, most kids can get away with wearing clothing, especially hats, that make them look like little trolls or Oompa-Loompas. You can plop just about anything on their little melons and they end up being “cute.” And the same is true for most women - remember how adorable Diane Keaton looked in Annie Hall?
As for me, looking “cute,” or even halfway decent in a hat has never been a particularly realistic goal. If you were to put that same Annie Hall hat on me, within seconds you would have the neighbors dialing up the Help! There’s a Psychotic Pervert On My Block hot line.
Here, in detail, are some of the headgear “looks” I’ve experimented with over the years:

The Elmer Fudd - If you’re anywhere near as old as I am (hint - I now measure my age in “geological periods” rather than “years”) your mom might have put you in one of these gems when you were about seven. This hat is kind of like a baseball cap with a flat top and ear flaps, and it makes a fashion statement that cries out, “Beat me up and take my lunch money.”
The Toque - For those of you who have never spent time “Up North” or in Canada, a “toque” is one of those wool beanies like the one sported by that Waldo character everybody wants to find. Around here we call them “stocking caps.” Some young guys, like my son, can yank one of these down to their eyebrows and look good, albeit a bit sinister. Not me. Even without the mask and the horizontal-striped shirt I wind up looking like a cartoon burglar.
The Cossack - Big furry hats might look terrific on gold miners, polar explorers and Russian Prime Ministers, but they make me look like I was involved in an unfortunate incident involving angular momentum and the hindquarters of a sheep dog.

The Great Detective - This is that tweed hat with the droopy brim and ear flaps worn by Sherlock Holmes. It is called a “Deerstalker,” presumably because any deer catching sight of you with this thing on your head would be laughing so hard that it would make an easy target. I once tried a cousin of the deerstalker, introduced to the world by Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies. Every time I wore it I got attacked in my parlor by a little Chinese guy.
Besides these major millinery themes I’ve tried lots of other, less classic options, ranging from fluffy ear muffs (OK, they were pink) to cowboy hats. I’ve even tried combinations - it turns out, a pair of fluffy pink ear muffs worn with a cowboy hat also gets you beat up. On the up side, the guys who beat you up for this hardly ever take your lunch money.
So there you have it. Even though my mother’s not around any more to supervise my cranial thermodynamics, I’m still trying to find something I could wear on my head to honor her memory without subjecting the lady next door to permanent psychological damage.
Any suggestions?
Mike Ball is the Erma Bombeck Award-winning author of "What I've Learned So Far..." and the book What I've Learned So Far... Part I: Bikes, Docks & Slush Nuggets. This column is an excerpt from the book
Copyright © 2009, Michael Ball
Comments
Mike Ball
Fri, Jan 29, 2010 : 3:18 p.m.
ichen, when it comes to being spotted in a crowd, I like to staple a traffic cone to my head. It hurts like heck, but you can't miss me. littleredhairedgirl, the peak of hat abuse I endured as a kid was a gift from an aunt who had a talent for the most humiliating gifts possible - in this case a pointed orange stocking cap with a blue poof on the end and ribs on the sides so it stood straight up like a... well, like a traffic cone. Ed, what exactly would be the tonsorial ideal for a toque? In other words, what would you recommend for a "chook chop?"
littleredhairedgirl
Fri, Jan 29, 2010 : 1:10 p.m.
Love your hat! but no bunny puff on top leads to believe you were not truly hat abused as a youth...he he
ichen
Fri, Jan 29, 2010 : 1:05 p.m.
I wear a "toque" or a beanie as I call it, but I've taken a red one beanie, sewn a white beanie on top, and finally added a red pom-pom to make it a true Waldo beanie. Call it silly, call it ridiculous, I call it warm and handy when people are looking for me.
Wolverine3660
Thu, Jan 28, 2010 : 8:18 p.m.
Nah, Mike, far from good looking. Kinda ugly, really, is more like it!!! :):)
Mike Ball
Thu, Jan 28, 2010 : 1:54 p.m.
OK, so you're one of those good-looking people - that would explain it. I agree, those are very neat hats - but as my picture above should attest, if they caught sight of me coming in one they'd probably start warming up the old taser.
Wolverine3660
Thu, Jan 28, 2010 : 12:19 p.m.
Mike- I think they dont make comments, because, I no longer look stupid when wearing this nice golf hat. As opposed to previous winters when I wore other winter hats that definitely made me look goofy. Especially those multi-colored technical hats that had Gore-Tex, Thinsulate, WindStopper and other space-age membranes sewn into them!!!!
Mike Ball
Thu, Jan 28, 2010 : 9:53 a.m.
Maybe they are afraid of you...
Wolverine3660
Thu, Jan 28, 2010 : 8:43 a.m.
How about a nice, tweed, golf cap, with built-in ear flaps? I bought one of those at Van Bovens on State Street? I haven't had a single friend or stranger make a single smart-alec remark when they have seen me wearing this hat. :)