George and the snap brim fedoras

George Powell's rapier-sharp wit and mischievous pranks have kept his friends entertained for decades, but he told a story at dinner the other night that still has Jimmy and me in stitches. It happened forty years ago, but we'd never heard this one before.

Back in the sixties, George and Karen lived in Chicago, where George carpooled with some co-workers, from the suburbs to their jobs downtown. George was a brash young pup in his twenties, while one of his fellow carpoolers, Sid, was older and took himself (and life) very seriously. Sid wore a snap brim fedora to work every day.

George found out where Sid's hat had been purchased and bought two more exactly like it, but one was a size larger and the other a size smaller. Sid kept his fedora under the seat of his car, and every day, George would manage to swap the hats: on the small hat days, it would barely perch on the top of Sid's head, and on the large hat days, it fell down over his ears. Some days George would leave Sid's real hat under the seat, and of course it fit just fine.

This went on for weeks, until poor Sid went to a doctor to have his head examined: he was convinced that something like a brain tumor was making his head expand and contract. At this point, George, a kind soul at heart, relented and fessed up.