A not-so-fond farewell to 2008 from the newspaper industry

The year is drawing to a close, and I daresay for most of us in the newspaper industry it’s time to say “good riddance” to 2008. According to the trade journal Editor & Publisher, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 21,000 newspaper jobs disappeared over the past 12 months. That report totals 3,000 jobs […]

A new cap for the Big Unit

Randy Johnson has signed a one-year contract with the San Francisco Giants, and that’s good news for baseball fans by the bay. Even at 45, The Big Unit has some good games left in that 6’10” frame. The move to the Giants will be a bit of a homecoming for Johnson, who grew up nearby […]

Presidents and baseball caps, 18th Century division

This isn’t, technically speaking, a cap in my collection. But it’s too cool not to count. My mother-in-law and I have traded gag gifts at Christmas over the years, and yesterday I received a University of Virginia T-shirt with the crossed-saber logo on the front. But the back is what really matters. It depicts our […]

Leukemia patient gives the gift of hats

Here’s a delightful story from North Dakota about a 3-year-old boy battling leukemia who, as a Christmas present for those working at and being cared for at the hospital where he’s been treated, donated about 500 hats that people all over the world had mailed to him. According to the AP story, the boy’s illness […]

Caps I have known — and lost

I’ve been a bit lax in posting of late, so to get back on the board I leave a short note in tribute to my old Weyerhauser “tree-killing” cap. I always wore it when I did yard work around our Seattle home, especially when a tree needed killin’. The cap was simple: a green crown […]

Amid the great outdoors, indoors

In search of a Christmas gift for a relative, my wife and I trekked to the new Bass Pro Shops store in Manteca, Calif., today. The store is, simply put, amazing. Racks and racks of merchandise are on display amid scores of stuffed bears, deer, boars, wolves, buzzards, sheep and pretty much any other critter […]

Let’s keep the stinky socks off the cap, please

The Boston Red Sox have revealed new alternate uniforms and, alas, the dreadful “hanging socks” cap at left. Methinks the Beaneaters should stick with the standard “B” that has served the franchise so well over the years. I suppose it’s OK for fans to wear the socks lid — after all, you can’t have too […]

Keeping my head about me, thanks to a Giants’ batting helmet

While dangling Christmas lights from the tree on our front lawn this morning, I was reminded of how a few years back my giveaway plastic San Francisco Giants batting helmet saved my head. I had to trim a branch from a tree in our backyard in New Jersey, and I stuck the batting helmet on […]

Juxtaposition: New Jersey and Yosemite National Park

What possessed me to take my “Weird N.J.” cap to Yosemite National Park? I guess my subconscious mind was trying to make a statement about the breadth of the American natural experience. Whatever the motivation, I wore the cap yesterday on an absolutely gorgeous fall day. This was my third trip to Yosemite, and the […]

Seattle without the Sonics, and other sad tales of the NBA

Having been born with virtually no talent for basketball, I suppose it’s not a huge surprise that basketball ranks fairly low on my list of favorites. As far as I can recall, I’ve only had one NBA team cap my entire life. That was a nifty green and black Seattle Supersonics cap, but it went […]