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The spectacle sickened me
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The spectacle sickened me

Happy National Hat Day!

Shaun Usher's avatar
Shaun Usher
Jan 15, 2024
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The spectacle sickened me
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Photo by Robert Natkin/Getty Images

It’s National Hat Day1, which gives me the perfect opportunity to share a piece of correspondence from a man who simply refused to write cheerful letters2: George Bernard Shaw. It was July of 1905, and Shaw had recently attended a performance of Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden—a performance ruined …

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