Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 17:44:56 EST From: Memories and Joys Subject: FILLER: The Bowler? Setting aside for the moment such intriguing side-issues as "mad as a hatter" or even "the cat in the hat", we find: "...The bowler, also known by such other names as the colloquial British "billycock" and, in America, the derby, was introduced about 1850 by the hatter William Bowler." from Dress and Adornment: DRESS: The history of Middle Eastern and Western dress: EUROPE AND AMERICA: 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES" Britannica Online. Your assignment, of course, is to expound, expand, and otherwise extend the range of plausibilities by telling us a tale of a bowler (even those funky candlepin ones, if that's the best for you), writing us a poetic roundelay upon the celebrated topper, or even expostulating upon the hatted versus the hatless...i.e., write! don't sniff the mercury! tink