That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for November 03, 2022

My original post in 2015:

The not-so secret handshake.

The beard conflict came to a peaceful end.

Doctor Livingston I presume?

No! I’m Doctor Livingston.

Don’t listen to them…I’m the Doctor… No! No!

It was supposed to be a singles’ mingle but turned into a sausage fest!

/// Six Swiss men shaking hands in the square, / clasp their right hands together and swear. / Left hand’s in the pocket / in order to block it / from the pickpocket standing right there.

(I’m certain this image appeared here at least one other time after 2015. I remember reading about Rütli and writing one or more comments a year or so ago. Does anyone remember when that was?)

The Broadway musical production of “Hats” has become an unexpected smash hit! The production numbers and sets are fabulous!! The Rockettes chorus line of men in hats worn through History is inspired!!!

The hat retro craze is here! Will snap-brim fedoras make a come-back, now? Top hats? Berets? Will Hats once again become a fashion item for women?

Songs include:

Hat Man, No Shine No More, Kirby in His Derby, Goodbye Toupee, The Barbers’ Lament, Come On Now Let’s All Get Hatty, Who’s Baldy Now, Don’t Fear Delilah, Put on That Old Gay Bonnet. My Heart Belongs to Hatty, Thanks for the Haberdashery, They Can’t Take That Hat Away From Me, Baldy Hai… AND MUCH MUCH MORE!

(This musical was sponsored in part by MAGA Enterprises and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®.)

The monthly meeting of “The Old Farts Club” was always held outdoors. Why? The answer lies in the name of their club.

Campaigner training school

Real estate developers reaching an agreement to replace more meadows with arcades.

You must remember this /

A Swiss is still a Swiss/

With or without a beard/

So, should you see a Swiss unsheared/

don’t think him weird…///

And, should he wear a hat/

There’s nothing wrong with that/

It’s normal in Lucerne../

That’s something you are bound to learn -

Should you return///

And so, if you should leave a/

To find it, do not even try/

You’ve just been had by some Swiss guy/

And so was I.

Where is the landscape painting scene of naked women congratulating each other for finding their unique hats?

I blame world wide automotive design after WWII. In a move to become more aerodynamic designers reduced headroom meaning men would have to remove their hats to get into the cars. the final stroke was JFK foregoing donning a top hat for his inauguration. I also credit Indiana Jones with reviving the hat. At least in my life. Fedoras and toques and others depending on the weather. Hats are cool. And can be warm.

Personal expression with your tie and hat styles. In an era of seemingly staid men’s fashion. Subtle variations on suit color tones. And then there is the facial hair.

“Got any chocolate? How about you? Got any chocolate?”

Prospective musicians consoling each other after failing the audition for Men Without Hats.

bad grammar… “exact same” is redundant. Only one of them would have been sufficient.

“Good game of dodgeball, old chap.”

Modern Rütli: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"File:Hodler Le grütli moderne 1887.jpg" site=commons.wikimedia.org 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and chose the first File: or Category: link found (if Category:, once there, search for the text string 1887 and click its link) for info and links that point to more info (best viewed Google Chrome, which can automatically translate most webpages if necessary) about this painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by merely clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s THROWBACK THURSDAY: MASTERPIECE #1212 (5/13/15) (November 2, 2022) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment. I have added comments there pointing to the artist info I used to point to here. So far 9 works, by this artist, have been used here (11 times, including this Throwback Thursday and prior repeat of it). The May 13, 2015, strip has its first time (the 25 hyperlinks in my comment there have been deactivated, and the line breaks removed, but perhaps the text remains informative). The October 25, 2018, strip has the last non-repeat work by him used there. The active artist info URLs in my comment there are pointed to by here links in my blog comment.

Republicans congratulating each other on November 7, 2022.

/// Swiss men’s hats— not just something they wore.

They were also a great place to store

papers kept close at hand.

Tucked right into the band,

proof they’re neutral in case of a war.

Their last act of civility before they enter the soccer stadium and become hooligans.

Jewish men saying goodby for the last time in front of Auschwitz

Hello! Did you also receive a letter from Dollar Shave Club asking to show up here at 7?

I attempted to create a limerick commenting on the odd composition of this painting, but couldn’t get it to work and have now run out of time. So I will instead just mention that I find this painting somewhat disturbing. The odd overlapping groups of men look like a hastily snapped rejected photo of a moving crowd. The empty space leading to the background gate, which bisects the image, highlights a handshake washed out by sunlight. And the furled red flag thrust up out of frame draws he eye… but to what exactly? Nothing very interesting is taking place, but the way in which all the elements have been composed adds a hint of mystery.

“Exact same?”