"...By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound..."
-The Clash
"Rock the Casbah"
"...A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have
.
Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for
warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on
it on the brilliant marble‐sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling
the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which
shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini
raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in
hand‐to‐hand‐combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes
or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a
mindbogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it
can't see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your
towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself
off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. "...
- D. Adams
" The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"
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| Jeez...smile a little , buddy....( tied around the head like them Saudi fellers taught me...) |
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I've mentioned it before, but a the head covering known as a
Keffiyeh ( often worn with an
agal
-a headband )to the Saudis I first bought it from (and as a Shemagh to
the servicemen involved in the more recent Middle eastern
conflicts...) is a terrific all around piece of equipment for the desert
rat, its a simple piece of cotton( or if you can find an old timey one a
cotton wool blend, which seems a better design for several of its
multiple uses...) roughly 40 to 60 inches square , and is generally
noticed around the wearers head - or in the case of soldiers and (
unfortunately) trendy kids tied around the shoulders. But there are a
myriad of practical uses as suggested by the late Douglas Adams(...
referring to towels, but you get the gist of it, a nice big piece of
cotton cloth is always a good thing to have at hand...)
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| Tuban style- fo' when I done los' ma hat.. |
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I use mine not only as a head covering or as a traditional type
scarf ,but (most effectively) in the arid desert as a personal swamp
cooler...this won't help in areas where there is significant humidity
but in arid places you can get a LOT of relief from hot air evaporating
moisture from cotton cloth, a whole list of other uses should pop
immediately to mind such as : pot holders , lid lifters, padding for
grabbing pointy things, sun shades, a short rope, tourniquet, bandage,
sling, ...you get the idea I am sure...
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| Colors of Keffiyeh I prefer/own ( ..stealthy...) |
|
The drawbacks are, I
guess, worth considering, if in my opinion, overblown. I suppose there
is an implicit "political" or "religious": statement in use of a piece
of middle eastern gear in the whiter skinned parts of the
world...personally I can only roll my eyes and deal with the
consequences, but having said that you should probably only use the
things in the outback until islamo-arab hysteria is a thing of the
past-assuming you are concerned about what idiot rednecks, cops and
rangers think of you towel. However, (blessedly) most of our modern
military guys will recognize the item itself and its utility, so you
should be pretty safe from their ire...
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| kerchief/cowboy style(Also: Nice hair ...Jackass.....) |
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| fashionista/douchebag style( I actually wear this this way in town so as to be unobtrusive, but bunched under a jacket it keeps your neck warm when out in the boonies too...) |
Personally, I couldn't give two cents though for any shit-kickers opinion on such a useful piece of cloth, I wear and use it as I please, and I might admit that that I do have a fondness for ( usefully) camouflaged gear in general, so I have been very happy to be finding keffiyeh in outdoors and surplus stores lately in colors that blend in rather than the more traditional primary colors on white( having said that though, I imagine that white should reflect more sunlight away from your dome than any other color...), looking through the pile I have khaki/olive, tan /black, sandy yellow/black, white/tan tan/sandy orange, brown/sandy orange , plus my girlfriend has a blue/black ( to match her pretty eyes...)
love to hear from you- leave a comment!
