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NCSU Chancellor Responds To Criticism Of Donahue's Commencement Address
A commencement adress that some say crossed the line is still the buzz at North Carolina State.
N.C. biotechs
expect to hire
The state's biotechnology companies expect to add 2,200 to 3,300 jobs per
year through 2005, according to a survey conducted by the N.C. Biotechnology
Center.
Stuck
in the Mud
Farmers are happy to have the rain, but need a break for work, they say
Avoiding
the itch
Those spring showers may bring flowers and lush lawns, but they also bring
plenty of pesky poisonous plants.
Miami
president is key
Shalala ultimately will decide whether Hurricanes should leave Big East Conference
and join ACC
Bankrupt
reasoning
Relative to Marshall Brain's May 12 Point of View article on dividends ("Dividends?
Don't mend 'em, end 'em"), I would add two points not yet mentioned by
previous letter-writers.
Quick
Takes: Higher ed just ain't what it used to be
Cites NC State Commencement address
Another
Thing No 3 - The Gallus Sombrero
cites Richard Slatta, history
NCSU Chancellor Responds To Criticism Of Donahue's Commencement Address
May 21, 2003
WRAL-TV
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A commencement adress that some say crossed the line is still the buzz at North Carolina State.
Talk show host Phil Donahue gave the school's commencement address over the weekend. Several students walked out in protest, right in the middle of graduation.
Donahue talked about keeping organized prayer out of the classroom, racial profiling and traditionally democratic positions.
N.C. State's chancellor said that, although the political comments were unexpected, the speech gave students a last-minute challenge.
"Provocative speeches are what academia does," Mary Anne Fox said, "and being able to hear both sides on any issue and use the skills that you've developed as an undergraduate or graduate student at N.C. State.
"To accept or reject on the basis of one's values, I think, is an important part of our education."
Phil Donahue won nine Emmys during his talk's show 26-year run.
May 22, 2003
The News & Observer
By David Ranii, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
DURHAM -- The state's biotechnology companies expect to add 2,200 to 3,300 jobs per year through 2005, according to a survey conducted by the N.C. Biotechnology Center.
And those job projections only include the companies already here. Not included are employees that would be hired by any biotech manufacturing operations that are lured from other states.
Already, fast-growing companies such as Biogen and Wyeth Vaccines are straining to find employees with the necessary skills, Biogen executive Hal Price said Wednesday at Biotech 2003, an industry conference held at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel that attracted 800 attendees.
"We are in a situation where we are hiring each other's people," Price said. "And that can't continue."
Price is convinced that the state's existing biotech companies are going to be in growth mode for the next decade. "I think there will be a need for 30,000 employees in the next 10 years," he said.
State and local business recruiters have made biotech companies a priority because the industry is one of the few that is enjoying healthy growth in a stalled economy.
Indeed, a panelist at Wednesday's conference -- John F.A.V. Cecil, a member of a steering committee dedicated to strengthening biotech in western North Carolina -- said Asheville just landed a 45-employee biotech plant.
Although the biotech industry is facing a severe capacity shortage that is expected to trigger a boom in new production facilities, the growth of individual manufacturers isn't guaranteed. Diosynth RTP said Wednesday it is laying off 68 workers, or 12 percent of its staff.
The employment needs of today's companies, and the prospects of attracting others, has spurred industry chiefs, the state-funded N.C. Biotechnology Center, economic development leaders and politicians to throw their support behind a $45 million plan to boost the state's biotech training efforts. Funding is being sought from the Golden LEAF Foundation and elsewhere for a biotech manufacturing training facility that would be built at either N.C. State University's Centennial Campus or N.C. Central University in Durham; a network of training programs at community colleges; and a graduate-level process development program at NCCU.
Gov. Mike Easley was greeted by scattered applause when he unequivocally endorsed the project during his luncheon speech. "I don't know whether we're going to get it from Golden LEAF, through bonds, through the legislature or whether I'm going to go to the bank and steal it, but I promise you we will find the money in North Carolina," he said.
There is "an enormous need for skilled workers," Easley added.
"Nothing else happens without skilled workers."
North Carolina's biotech industry is most prominent in the Triangle, but efforts are being made to promote the industry elsewhere in the state.
The state-funded Biotechnology Center, which is based in Research Triangle Park, is opening a satellite office in the Triad in June and hopes to open three others across the state, said Leslie Alexandre, the center's president.
Staff writer David Ranii can be reached at 829-4877.
May 22, 2003
Winston-Salem Journal
By Jim Sparks, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Winston-Salem Journal
WILKESBORO
After four years of drought, farmers throughout Northwest North Carolina are thankful for the abundance of rain in the past nine months.
They would, however, like to see it stop long enough to get such crops as silage corn and tobacco in the ground and their spring hay harvested
'We've got a bumper crop of hay, but it's been too wet to cut it,' said Matt Miller, an agent with the Wilkes County Cooperative Extension Service. 'We're also way behind in corn and tobacco planting because it's just been too wet to work the soil.'
At the same point in the growing season last year, ground-water and soil-moisture levels were near record lows because of the prolonged drought.
Since September, though, rainfall has been about 12 inches above the historical average.
By this time of year, most of the corn in Wilkes County has usually been planted, Miller said. Because of the plentiful rain so far this year, only about half of the county's cornfields have been sown.
Still, the season is not lost. Farmers should be able to make a crop if they can get their corn planted by June 15, he said.
John Mathis, who runs one of the county's largest corn-growing operations, said he is thankful for every drop of rain after suffering through the drought.
Although he has only about 40 percent of his corn in the ground, Mathis said he is confident that the crop will get planted even if it requires long workdays.
The Mathis' family operation in eastern Wilkes County, A.S.J. Mathis Farm, produces poultry and grows about 3,000 acres of corn. The corn is turned into silage, which is sold to area dairy farmers.
Because of the drought last year, Mathis said, yields fell well short of expectations and he had to buy corn to supply customers.
This year promises to be much better financially despite the planting delays, he said.
'I'm not complaining,' Mathis said about long stretches of wet weather. 'Yes, we need to be in the field, but we'll make it up. I would much rather have the weather like this than the way it was last summer.'
Although higher-than-average rainfall has hampered burley-tobacco planting in the northwestern mountain counties, extension agents monitoring the crop said that farmers there aren't griping much.
'The rain's been a blessing, but it's really slowing things down,' said Frank Bolick, a tobacco specialist with the Watauga County Cooperative Extension Service. 'It's just been too wet to till.'
Bolick said that burley-tobacco farmers traditionally like to have their seedlings set out by now to avoid major outbreaks of blue mold.
Tobacco plants aren't as susceptible to blue mold, a fungal disease, once the plants have been topped - their flowers broken off.
A series of hard frosts last spring in the mountain counties killed most of the tobacco seedlings that farmers had planted.
With that in mind, many burley farmers have delayed planting this year.
However, it has reached the point where growers need to get their tobacco in the ground, if conditions will dry out long enough to let them, Bolick said.
'It hasn't caused major problems yet. But if it keeps raining a lot, it's going to be a real issue before long,' he said.
Extension agents specializing in the cultivation of grapes and apples are also worried that those crops could be affected by disease problems if overly moist conditions persist.
Those fears may be realized, state climate experts said.
Ryan Boyles, a meteorologist with the state climate office at N.C. State University in Raleigh, said that based on current weather patterns and computer modeling, rainy weather will continue through at least the first part of the summer.
Although the drought has not been officially declared over, state officials in charge of monitoring rainfall were expected to discuss that topic during meetings this week, Boyles said.
Although ground-water supplies in some places have not been fully replenished, it appears that for most of the state the drought is history, he said.
'For most folks, the drought is essentially over, but we're still curious to see what's going to happen as the summer progresses,' Boyles said.
'Whatever happens, though, we're in a much better situation than we were last year at this time,' he said.
March 22, 2003
The News & Observer
By Dan Holly, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Those spring showers may bring flowers and lush lawns, but they also bring plenty of pesky poisonous plants.
More than half of the state's
residents can expect to get at least a small "patch" of poison ivy
reaction during an average summer, according to Dr. Eric Lavonas, a toxicologist
with the Carolinas Poison Center in Charlotte.
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In this part of the state, poison ivy is the most common plant irritant, said Erv Evans, a consumer horticulturalist with N.C. State University. It's spread by birds, who eat the berries.
"I wouldn't say it's all over the place but it's fairly common," Evans said.
Eight in every 10 people are allergic to urushiol, the oil in poison ivy, poison sumac and poison oak that causes skin irritation when those plants are touched, Lavonas said.
The good news, he said, is that the reactions, though annoying, are rarely serious.
"You can itch like crazy and get large rashes on your skin for two weeks," Lavonas said, "but you're not going to die from poison ivy."
Rashes, blisters and other skin eruptions will heal without leaving a scar, the doctor said.
Another piece of good news is that victims of poison plant irritations need not stay away from friends and family.
"A lot of people will stay inside because they think it's contagious, but it's not," he said. Once the urushiol is washed off the skin, the irritation cannot be spread.
The cheapest and simplest way to deal with reactions, Lavonas said, is to use the allergy drugs Benadryl or Claritin, which help relieve itching, and hydrocortisone cream, which relieves itching and helps heal the irritation faster. Lavonas also recommends baths with Aveeno skin care products.
All of those remedies are available over the counter.
When the itching is unbearable, doctors can prescribe a stronger medication, he said. Poison plant sufferers should also see a doctor, Lavonas said, if they have inhaled the irritants from the plants and are having trouble breathing; have gotten the oil in their eyes and their vision is affected, or if a rash is infected. When the drainage from a blister runs cloudy or has an odor, that is a sign of infection, Lavonas said.
He recommended long pants and gloves when working in the garden. A weed killer will take care of poisonous plants in your yard or garden.
Although human beings may be smart enough to avoid poison plants, animals may not be. Steve Hansen, director of the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., said poison plants "are not something we consider an issue for animals."
Hansen said that the center received only two inquiries in the past year from pet owners about poison ivy exposure and that neither case turned out to have caused a reaction.
But that doesn't mean pet owners need not worry about Fido nosing around in the wrong place: Animals can get the urushiol from the plants and transfer it to their owners when they touch them, he said.
Staff writer Dan Holly can be reached at 829-4633.
March 22, 2003
The News & Observer
By Chip Alexander, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
The fate of two major conferences -- affecting future bowl games, NCAA Tournament appearances, millions of dollars in revenue -- now appears to rest in the hands of a short, energetic, 62-year-old woman in Miami.
Donna Shalala, the president of the University of Miami, must decide whether her school should stay in the Big East or join the Atlantic Coast Conference. If Miami elects to switch, Syracuse and Boston College almost surely will follow, making the ACC a 12-member conference.
It's a decision that could dramatically affect college athletics, further consolidating conference power and perhaps putting the Big East out of business.
It's a decision, say those who know Shalala, that she won't linger in making.
"She's very decisive and very confident about her decisions without being arrogant about it," Aaron Podhurst, a member of the Miami board of trustees, said Wednesday. "When she has the information she needs, she'll act quickly and decisively."
"Her leadership style can be summed up in one word: action," added Pat Whitely, Miami's vice president for student affairs. "She moves very, very quickly, and she won't take no for an answer."
The ACC announced Friday that it would begin formal discussions with Miami, BC and Syracuse about expansion. Plans are under way for three groups of ACC athletics directors, faculty representatives, conference officials and presidents to visit the three schools next week.
On Wednesday, Miami athletics director Paul Dee returned from the Big East meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and reported to Shalala.
A move by Miami to the ACC must be approved by the school's trustees. Podhurst said the trustees had not scheduled a meeting or conference call yet but indicated the wait would not be long.
"She will not be impulsive about this," he said. "She will give everyone the opportunity to present their case and will have felt the pulse. She will decide if it's a good fit, make a decision, say it, then move on. And she will have support."
Shalala has declined interview requests.
Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has all but begged Shalala and Miami to stay, saying the three defections would cause "irreparable harm" to the league. Some of the Big East presidents have asked for a face-to-face meeting with Shalala, hoping to persuade her to spurn the ACC's offer.
"Miami," Tranghese said, "is driving this wagon."
But at a news conference Monday, an emotional Tranghese also seemed to question Shalala's integrity. He noted that during a meeting of Big East presidents in November 2001, Shalala had said Miami was committed to staying in the league.
"Intercollegiate athletics are supposed to be controlled by the presidents," he said. "That's what I've been told by the presidents. Welcome to the world of presidential control. When presidents act this way with other presidents, I think it's wrong."
Shalala, named Miami's president in June 2001, hasn't been hesitant to flex her administrative muscle when it comes to sports. As the chancellor at Wisconsin from 1987 to 1993, she forced out the athletics director, then fired the football coach.
"She doesn't make knee-jerk decisions; they're always reasoned decisions," said James Hoyt, a former Wisconsin professor who served on the school's athletics board. "Once she makes it, it's done. Her favorite line is, 'That train has left the station.'
"She's a problem-solver. She recognizes a problem, deals with it and never looks back. That's what she did with our athletics situation."
Shalala persuaded Pat Richter, a former Badgers football star, to quit a high-paying job and become AD, then hired a Notre Dame assistant named Barry Alvarez as football coach. A few years later, Wisconsin played in the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten champion.
"She felt the football program was going in the wrong direction and urged the athletic director to make a change," Richter said. "When he didn't want to do it, she changed both positions."
Richter, who is retiring this year, has kept up with all the talk about ACC expansion and understands Shalala's role in it. Like Podhurst, he expects a rapid resolution by Shalala.
"She won't shy away from the situation," Richter said. "I'm sure she has taken a good look at the athletic landscape, of what will best protect her university. She will quickly judge the long-term viability of what's to be done, then go do it."
Miami won the national championship in football in 2001, yet the athletics department lost almost $1.5 million that fiscal year. Shalala has long been a proponent of Title IX and women's sports, and a further upgrade to the Hurricanes' women's programs figures to be costly.
Making the ACC attractive is the $9.7 million it distributed to each member last year, more than Miami typically gets from the Big East. ACC officials also have made the case that a new conference championship game and TV contract in football would add to the pot.
Shalala also has personal ties to some of the ACC's leaders, including UNC system president Molly Broad, N.C. State chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Duke president Nan Keohane.
"She's very energetic, highly intelligent and a driven person," Fox said Wednesday.
Fox and Shalala are serving on a presidential commission that will oversee changes in the Bowl Championship Series, which determines the national football champion. A new BCS agreement will be in place in 2006 and could include a playoff.
By expanding, the ACC wants to position itself with the strongest conferences at the top of the BCS heap.
When Fox fired former Wolfpack football coach Mike O'Cain after the 1999 season, she received support from Shalala, who had offered words of advice.
"Donna said athletics are a glass ceiling for women in higher education administration," Fox said. "She said you have to learn to deal with athletics, and you have to be tough."
Shalala, Keohane said, is "a real straight shooter. When she gets a goal, she's real aggressive about seeing it through."
Many who know Shalala talk of her political savvy. The Cleveland native served in the Peace Corps. She was assistant secretary for policy development and research in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the late 1970s. She served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration.
Shalala's also an athlete, an avid tennis player. Wisconsin chancellor John Wiley noted she's a mountain climber who has traveled to the Himalayas.
"She's high-energy, and she's competitive," UNC's Broad said Wednesday. "She would be a force to be reckoned with around the ACC table, believe me."
Staff writer Chip Alexander can be reached at 829-8945.
The People's Forum: Bankrupt reasoning
March 22, 2003
The News & Observer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Relative to Marshall Brain's May 12 Point of View article on dividends ("Dividends? Don't mend 'em, end 'em"), I would add two points not yet mentioned by previous letter-writers.
When corporations earn profits, managers must decide whether to distribute dividends to shareholders or keep them within the firm as retained earnings. Currently, double taxation of dividends biases firms toward retained earnings, and many firms do not pay dividends. This policy strengthens managers, and makes it easier for them to ignore the interests of shareholders.
If Brain's 100 percent tax on dividends were enacted, it would earn little revenue because firms could legally avoid it by retained earnings. However, it would increase the independence of CEOs and make it more difficult to protect against the kind of corporate fraud that has been widely reported recently.
Brain's notion of unconscionable profits leads to a bizarre standard for measuring corporate success. Using his standard, if firms report persistent losses, management should not be criticized for excessive costs or failing to satisfy consumer demand. Rather they should be honored for steadfastly refusing to earn anti-social and unconscionable profits. By this standard, Midway Airlines has clearly outperformed Southwest!
Thomas Grennes
Raleigh
(The writer is professor of economics and professor of agricultural and resource economics at N.C. State University.)
Democracy, civility debated at college
May 21, 2003
The Rockford Register Star (Rockford, Ill)
By Carrie Watters, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Rockford Register Star.
ROCKFORD - The Rockford College family debated Tuesday what went wrong at its spring graduation ceremony that featured New York Times reporter and antiwar advocate Chris Hedges.
When do people listen to ideas, and when do they think critically and disagree? When do people sit respectfully, and is there a time for civility to be lost? These and more questions were discussed during a meeting Tuesday on the campus, the alma mater of social activist Jane Addams.
Students, faculty and staff didn't reach a consensus. And it's unlikely much of the public will either.
College President Paul Pribbenow maintained that students should be challenged by commencement speakers.
"Commencement is one of the last moments you have with students," Pribbenow said. "I want commencement to be more than a pop speech."
Hedges was the keynote speaker for Saturday's graduation of more than 400 students, but he found an unreceptive audience to a speech peppered with harsh criticism of the United States' policy in Iraq.
Hedges' microphone was twice unplugged. Some guests shouted for him to leave, and others chanted patriotic slogans. A few tried to rush the podium, and at least one graduate tossed his cap and gown to the stage before leaving.
Hedges' oration was trimmed to 18 minutes as the ceremony threatened to become out of control. The 20-year war correspondent said Tuesday he was disturbed by the emotional response to his speech.
"I didn't expect that. How can you expect to have anyone climb on stage and turn your mike off," Hedges said Tuesday during a telephone interview. "Watching it in my own country is heartbreaking."
Commencement speakers being booed is not new. Former TV talkshow host Phil Donohue was jeered while giving a commencement speech Saturday. He shared liberal views, including those on war, at North Carolina State University.
But this comes at a time when the New York Times is in the spotlight because Jayson Blair, a former reporter resigned under fire. Blair was questioned about deception and plagiarism in his stories.
College officials have attempted in the past year to revive the ideal of civic engagement espoused by 19th-century graduate and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams. It's an activist mindset of caring and being active in one's community, Pribbenow said.
They launched a marketing campaign with the slogan "Think. Act. Give a damn."
Some would say that's what some students did.
"Damn, we're not apathetic anymore," said 16-year professor Hank Esponsen.
People are deliberating. A father anticipating his daughter's graduation instead found himself protesting at a bookstore Monday to read Hedges' book on war.
More than 400 e-mails poured in from across the Rock River Valley and the world, surpassing the small, private liberal arts college in northern Illinois. Faculty, staff and students wrangled over questions as deep as democracy and as varied as Americans' views on Iraq.
Professor of economics Michael Sullivan disliked Hedges' stereotyping of soldiers as people who serve their country because other jobs are not available. The professor entered the military in 1977 with a fellow recruit who was a Ph.D.
Sullivan said a liberal arts education nurtures critical thought about what's said and whether to buy into it. Saturday's commencement is a consequence.
Other faculty members countered that respect for a speaker and civility must be maintained, even if the speaker is a poor choice.
"Critical thinking isn't to heckle a speaker after his first two sentences," said professor of economics Fred Rezazadeh.
Students at the meeting requested an apology from college administration. A day of accomplishment became a debacle.
The graduation was Pribbenow's first commencement at Rockford College. An informal group, including the college president, agreed on the speaker. Already, he is creating a formal committee of faculty, staff, board members and students to make recommendations of speakers next year.
Hedges was paid less than $5,000 to speak at the ceremony, Pribbenow said.
Pribbenow regretted the emotional toll the event had on graduates and their family members.
"We had no intention of turning the commencement into a circus."
Gov. Rod Blagojevich originally was scheduled to give the commencement address, which historically hasn't stirred much controversy. Most cannot even remember past keynote speakers.
The governor canceled in March, and a New York agency recommended five speakers, among them Hedges.
Pribbenow should have known what to expect, Hedges said Tuesday. "You don't invite a speaker like this if you want 'climb every mountain.' "
A glossy send-off is not what the graduates got.
Hedges opened with: "I'm here to talk about war and empire."
He said the United States was an occupying force, rather than a liberating force. He predicted Iraq would become a cesspool for the United States as it was for the British in 1917.
Some faculty members questioned whether civility is a two-way street and Hedges should have at least acknowledged that he was speaking to graduates on the cusp of a great achievement - a college diploma.
"We did expect him to frame his remarks to a particular people on a particular day," Pribbenow said.
Campus security tried to calm angered students and audience members, one was a soldier just home from Iraq and about to ship out to Korea.
As graduates crossed the stage to receive their diplomas, a campus security vehicle whisked Hedges off the grounds.
Hedges said what he knew about Rockford was the progressiveness of Jane Addams. What he discovered was uncomfortable and disturbing, although he said he couldn't paint the entire community with the broad brushstroke of protesters' actions.
His book, called "War is a Force that Gives us Meaning," explores the fervor that takes over individual thought in times of war. People no longer feel alienated, but instead, feel they belong to something larger than themselves, Hedges said in his speech.
He viewed what happened Saturday as a manifestation of the phenomenon.
"I find it always frightening when that happens in war time," Hedges said.
George Kehoe, a 66-year-old father from rural Boone County does not view his reaction as closed-minded. He approached the front of the stage in protest.
He was disturbed, too. Veterans who sacrificed their health were in attendance, Kehoe said.
Kehoe spent more than an
hour reading Hedges' book at a store on Monday night. He didn't walk out with
a purchase.
Quick Takes: Higher ed just ain't what it used to be
May 23, 2003
Chicago Sun-Times
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 Chicago Sun-Times.
News Item: Phil Donahue is booed and jeered while trying to list "what liberals believe" during commencement speech at North Carolina State University.
News Item: Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) is met with boos and walkouts over previous anti-gay remarks during commencement speech at St. Joseph's University.
News Item: New York Times reporter Chris Hedges is booed off the stage because of anti-war statements during Rockford College commencement speech. That'll teach 'em for attempting free speech on a college campus.
Another Thing No 3 - The Gallus Sombrero
March 21, 2003
Edinburgh (U.K.) Scotsman
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The Scotsman.
FOR one day only, that day being today, the Scottish national hat is the sombrero. This morning, and for perhaps another 24 hours, the urbane and sophisticated population of Seville will be confronted by a friendly army of Glaswegians drinking cerveza and wearing sombreros.
This, we may speculate, will be a source of curiosity to them. Last year, when the supporters of Real Madrid gathered in Glasgow for the European Cup Final, they did not wear kilts, bowler hats, or adopt the knobbly walking sticks of Sir Harry Lauder. They came, they got wet, they went home.
No such insularity for the Celticistas. In a spirit of self-parody, they have adopted the look favoured by the hardy pioneers who conquered the Spanish coasts in the 1960s, taking with them a predilection for skin cancer, exposed bellies, and an uncharacteristic fondness for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
In those gentle days, a plastic donkey was an acceptable holiday gift and the dress code for the charter plane home was Jesus sandals, baggy shorts, and a sombrero (football strip optional).
This was odd on several
levels, most notably that no-one in Spain - not even the friendly peasant ladies
who tilled the fields - wore sombreros. If they were worn at all it was by Mexican
banditos in the spaghetti westerns, and while some of them were filmed in Almeria
(The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), there was little to connect the broad-brimmed
straw hat to recent Spanish history.
True, the hat takes its name from the Spanish word sombra, meaning shade. A
sombrero, then, is a shady hat.
According to Dr Richard W Slatta, Professor of History at North Carolina State University, the Mexican sombrero was derived from the Spanish poblano, a hat with a flat crown and a wide, fat brim. To this, the Mexicans added a wider brim and a conical crown, though these modifications made the sombrero suitable only for the heads of mariachi musicians playing Guantanamera, and not for its original use as an agricultural tool. These hats were adapted by Texan cowboys and popularised by the New Jersey-born hatmaker John B Stetson, who moved west for his health and made the first ten-gallon hat in 1865.
Just the thing for the non-existent beaches of Seville.