Under the Wire

An old joke asks the question, “Why do cowboys roll up the sides of their hats?”

Answer: So three of them can sit together in the front seat of a pickup.

I’m pretty sure there’s no truth to that since cowboy hats pre-date the crew cab dually. I wouldn’t have thought about it at all if something strange hadn’t happened many years ago.

In an odd twist of fate, a large city newspaper began running this column. I was their first cowboy writer, I guess, because when the first column came out, my picture at the top of the column had my hat almost entirely cut off!

To a cowboy that is an unspeakable...