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The Bookless Club: Any stories from your graduations?

Opinion: Mortar board or dunce cap. One hat is flat, one hat is pointed. One hat says “smart”, the other hat says “stupid”.

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The month of June provides many opportunities for reflection. You may find yourself sitting in a humid auditorium waiting for graduates to get their tassels moved from right to left. Perhaps, you’ll be waiting for the arrival of a bridal party who have detoured into a local park for interminable wedding photos. Maybe you’ll be stuck at a departure gate waiting on a delayed inbound plane. Vast swaths of June move slowly. Make it a point to have something to read. If nothing else, use the time to ponder the mysteries of the universe.

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I recently attended a graduation ceremony and got to wondering about those odd, square-shaped hats grads wear. They are commonly called mortar boards, which is puzzling, as bricklayers use mortar boards for holding the stuff that sticks one brick to another. Is there some symbolism there, I wondered? A mortar board on your head has long been an indicator of intelligence. The opposite of a mortar board is a dunce’s cap — a big, white cone. One hat is flat, one hat is pointed. One hat says “smart”, the other hat says “stupid”. These two toppers are at opposite ends of the hat taxonomy. Where did this all come from?

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As with most things, it turns out that the history of both hats is complex and surprising.

It turns out the graduation cap has an ancient history dating back to the 1500s when Catholic clerics and scholars in........

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