Now that you know my upbringing, you will understand that for me to wear a hat at a “rakish” angle would be an act of grievous impety. I would be betraying the values which I have held so dear all my life. Nevertheless it occurrs to me that there is a compromise between Rakish and Un-rakish – call it a “grey area”.

Readers of the Hooting Yard blog may be familiar with the concept of grey areas. Aficionados of Science-Fiction have suggested that our world will end, not with biblical Armageddon, but in a kind of “grey goo”, the ultimate grey-area. The grey-area to which I refer to is one less frought with physical danger but one which to me presents a great deal of moral hazard.

As I have said, it would be unseemly for me to wear my hat at a “rakish” angle however there is no Papal Bull or Encyclical forbidding the wearing of a hat at an angle which is merely “Jaunty”. It can be said that wearing a hat rakishly is a sign of moral turpitude, whereas the jaunty-hat wearer merely wishes to proclaim his “Joi de vivre”.

Perhaps you could produce a table which correlates the form of head-gear with the maximum acceptable angle for the particular saints’ feast days upon which it is customary to wear a hat? All of your readers can then be comfortable in the reassurance that they have not incurred the wrath of an angry-God for their hat related sins.

Yours in Christ

T. Wellington