Oliver Mak runs Bodega, on Clearway St. near the Christian Science
Center. He is my expert on all things of the moment. When he
skateboards by for a cup of coffee I can ask him important questions.
The NYTimes still runs banner photos that evoke the glories of the May
Day Parades in Moscow. Back then everyone in the Supreme Soviet would
clamber atop Lenin’s Tomb and line up like members of the Super Bowl
champs visiting the White House. But instead of wearing those
distinctive oversized Soviet hats or the strange dictator styles of
South America the new rogues’ gallery is more likely to feature….
baseball caps. When American cops started wearing them they began
looking like Dads who coach softball teams. Even French cops
sometimes wear them, shattering any remnant of the Glory that Is -or
was- France. In Iran President Ahmadinejad spoke at a military
parade. He, like President Kennedy, was hatless, and like a Silicon
Valley executive he was tieless. To his right was a general wearing
the cap of an admiral from a landlocked country. Everyone else,
according to Oliver, was wearing “54-50 Standard” headgear, and
looking very urban American. Even people who probably hate us can’t
stop incorporating television images.