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Sombreros In The News
[Some Things Are Too Good To Throw Away]

It's been far too long since a sombrero made an appearance in the Salad Bowl.

We're about to rectify that.

My favorite recent sombrero-related news item: A Boston Bruins hockey fan who made a "ticket sombrero" with the remnants from his 1970 season tickets.

Better yet: This item is for sale on eBay:

This eBay auction boasts that the games were played at the Boston Garden; that the tickets feature "every game played by Bobby Orr including Stanley Cup games, playoffs and finals"; and that the game tickets were originally priced at $4 apiece ... or 1/500th the cost of a Boston Bruins ticket sombrero.

Not a hockey fan? Perhaps you'll enjoy this act of staged hat-related public protest.

Police in Paradise Valley, Arizona took a giant sombrero into custody last month because it had interfered with a roadside speed camera. Members of the group CameraFraud had gathered beside the device on June 11 to protest the use of automated ticketing machines while the Daily Show's Olivia Munn filmed the action.

About a dozen surrounded the sombrero-topped camera which carried a sign painted in the colors of the Mexican flag reading, "Deport Me" when Paradise Valley Police Officer Steven Chavira arrived on the scene, furious at what was going on.

"Turn off that camera," he yelled at the film crew while holding his hand over the camera lens.

Chavira ripped down the "Deport Me" sign, then jumped several times in vain attempts to reach the giant hat that rested on the camera head just beyond his reach. After using a stick, Chavira and a second officer were able to knock off the sombrero, which he stomped on several times before taking it into custody in his patrol car.

Then there was this feature today "Strangest Roadside Attractions" on ABC News' web site. It included the giant, sombrero-wearing amigo at South of the Border:

Strange? Perhaps to someone who thinks a 27-foot-tall penguin in Cut Bank, Mont., is a big deal. To the members of Salad Nation? Ain't nuthin' but a thang.

The world would be a much better place with more oversize sombreros, if you ask me.

A sombrero also made the police blotter recently as a co-conspirator:

SPRINGBORO — Police were hunting a black male wearing a red shirt and sombrero after he robbed a Little Caesars pizza restaurant at 228 W. Central Ave.

Nobody was hurt in the incident, which was reported at 11:42 a.m., a police dispatcher said.

The least he could have done was rob a Taco Bell or an El Pollo Loco. Would have been much more sartorially accurate.

Lastly, there's the story of four men who are attempting to cover a mountain in the Andes with white paint as a way of combatting global warming.

The painters who have already completed two hectares of a planned 70 have been recruited from Licapa village, which depends on the run-off from the mountain for its water

By painting the mountains, Eduardo Gold hopes to replicate the effect of Andean glaciers, which reflect back sunlight and hence heat back through the atmosphere.

The technique is scientifically plausible and, according to some scientists, may be the only method of lowering global temperatures in a crisis.

Obama's green guru calls for white roofs "A white surface reflects the sun's rays back through the atmosphere and into space, in doing so it cools the area around it too," said the 55-year-old activist. "In effect in creates a micro-climate, so we can say that the cold generates more cold, just as heat generates more heat."

It is hoped the project will slow the melting of the glaciers.

Four workmen have been given the task of painting three peaks.

The peak they're starting with?

Peru's 4,756 metres-above-sea-level Chalon Sombrero mountain.

Posted by Jeff at July 20, 2010 12:15 PM | TrackBack