Curio Cabinet

Ooo la la! This timeless headpiece is as French as escargot, yet the beret has managed to maintain incredible worldwide appeal throughout the centuries. This simple, unisex hat has shown up on the heads of everyone from European royals to uniformed soldiers and is still going strong despite a history that stretches back at least as far as the 14th century.
 
Although modern berets are heavily associated with French fashion and largely gained popularity in the 20th century, flat-cap style hats have been worn since the time of ancient Greece. The true ancestor of the beret comes from Europe in the 1300s, when felted or fulled wool hats were a durable, warm choice for many people working outdoors. The simple design of these hats gave them a timeless quality that endured through the centuries, and they were eventually adopted by the people of the Basque region, sandwiched between the border of France and Spain. The Basque people were renowned fishermen and whalers who sailed long distances in search of their quarry. Basque berets were perfect for these hardy sailors, who needed water–resistant hats to keep them warm while sailing the cold, northern seas. Their version of the beret became so emblematic of their culture that receiving one at the age of 10 was a rite of passage for boys in the Basque city of Béarn, where the hat is said to have originated. Other European cultures recognized the sailing prowess of Basque fishermen as well, and many came to Basque country to learn from the best. That, along with the long-reaching travels of the Basque sailors, spread the Basque beret around Europe. It wasn’t until 1835, though, that the hat began to be called “beret,” short for the French name for it, “béret basque.” Throughout the 1800s, the hat gained increasing popularity outside of maritime professions, though for less peaceful purposes.
 
The beret came into the forefront of fashion and history when Spanish-Basque military officer Tomás de Zumalacárregui wore a large, red iteration of the hat during the First and Second Carlist Wars. From then on, the beret was inextricably linked to military aesthetics, and was adopted by various European armies thereafter. Another famous example were the Chasseurs Alpins, an elite group of French soldiers trained to fight in the mountains. They wore blue berets to distinguish themselves and keep warm. Then came the brutal conflicts of WWI and WWII, when the advent of wireless communication with the widespread adoption of radios and telephones gave the beret a novel advantage: its compact design allowed it to fit in the cramped spaces inside tanks and other vehicles, while also allowing for the wearing of headphones. Soon, berets became associated with elite forces like the Green Berets of the U.S. Army.
 
Around the same time, though, the beret once again found itself being worn for fashion. They were embraced by artists and writers like Ernest Hemingway, who considered their roots in European peasantry a means of rebelling against mainstream fashion. As Paris distinguished itself as the world’s fashion center, the hats became most heavily associated with France. Today, the beret remains largely a fashion statement, but it’s also been worn by political revolutionaries such as Che Guevara and the Black Panthers as a means to identify themselves. No matter who you are, though, when you put on a beret, you’re not just wearing a fashionable headpiece. You’re wearing a piece of history.

 
[Image description: A maroon-colored beret hat with a puffed decoration on top, sitting on a blank mannequin head.] Credit & copyright:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wikimedia Commons. Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of E. F. Schermerhorn, 1953. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Being out in open water with no provisions might sound terrifying to most people, but Neil Aigus isn’t most people. On September 23, the Maltese activist and ultra-endurance athlete completed the longest unaided, open-water swim on record after swimming for three days straight. Aigus’s trip began on the morning of the September 21st, when he took off from Għadira Bay in the village of Mellieħa, located on the northern coast of Malta. From there, he swam around the island until he climbed out of a ladder on the beach in Għar Lapsi, another bay on the island’s southern coast. During his three days in the open water, he covered 87 miles without stopping, breaking the previous world record of 78 miles (also set by him). To be considered for the record, Aigus swam with nothing but a porous swimsuit, goggles, a non-neoprene swim cap, and ear plugs, per the rules set out by the World Open Water Swimming Association. Although he had a support crew trailing him, he wasn’t allowed to rest on their boat. While Aigus had a crowd of cheering supporters to greet him at the end, he says he didn’t do it for personal glory. Instead, he told the press, “It was a swim for Malta.” Indeed, the swim was part of a larger effort to raise awareness of marine waste polluting the island's coasts. As he swam, volunteers scoured the coasts for trash, and by the time he finished, they had collected over 1700 pounds of it. That should be a record of some kind too.

[Image description: A close-up photo of a watery surface.] Credit & copyright:
Matt Hardy, Pexels
 

Would’ya like a bowl of chowdah? Go to Boston, and you may very well be asked this question. Even though clam chowder is heavily associated with Beantown, though, it’s prized throughout all of New England—and there are plenty of regional variations, all of which are perfect to cozy up with as fall weather approaches.
 
The most famous type of clam chowder is New England clam chowder, also called Boston-style. It’s a thick, creamy soup made with clams (usually Quahog clams, though littleneck clams are also sometimes used.) The clams are steamed, de-shelled, and chopped into hearty chunks before being added to a broth of milk, butter, potatoes, onions, and flour for thickening purposes. Pork or bacon is sometimes added, and the chowder is usually sprinkled with black pepper. Clam chowder is normally served with oyster crackers, which get their name, at least in part, from their association with the soup. Some people’s preference for crushing the crackers and adding them to the chowder as a thickener actually mimics some of the first New England clam chowder recipes, which used crushed hard tack or stale bread in place of flour to thicken the broth.
 
Despite its beloved status in Boston, Boston-style clam chowder didn’t actually originate there—or even in the states, for that matter. Seafood chowders had been popular in Europe for centuries by the time anyone in the U.S. ate their first bowl of it. In the 1700s, as settlers from places like England, France, and Nova Scotia came to New England, they brought their seafood recipes with them. Sometimes, fishing communities would create large, communal pots of soup, adding leftover fish from their days’ catch. These fishermen were sometimes called “Jowters”, after a 16th-century word meaning fishmonger, which may be where the word “chowder”, meaning seafood soup, originated. No one knows for certain how clams came to be the main ingredient in American chowders, but the first written instance of them being added to chowder came in 1833, in American Frugal Housewife. The name of this book might give a clue as to their popularity, since clams were usually cheaper to procure than high-quality fish.
 
Today, the most famous clam chowder variations are Manhattan clam chowder and Rhode Island clam chowder, which look and taste quite different from the Boston-style dish. Manhattan style clam chowder forgoes milk in favor of a tomato-based broth with added vegetables and thyme. Rhode Island clam chowder does away with the creamy broth of New England’s style and the tomato-based broth of Manhattan's style, opting for a clear broth made by simmering clams, vegetables, and pork in fish stock. The truth is, no matter where you are in New England, there’s sure to be some kind of clam chowder on the menu. Not bad for a soup originally made by humble fishmongers.

 
[Image description: A black bowl filled with white, lumpy clam chowder sprinkled with black pepper.] Credit & copyright: Daderot, Wikimedia Commons