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     <jmd> what in the heck is a pith helmet?
<dagbrown> It's a helmet made from pith.
     <jmd>        n 1: soft spongelike central cylinder of the stems of most
     <jmd>             flowering plants
     <jmd> and why would you build a helmet from that?
<dagbrown> Yah, if you dry it out it gets really hard, but while it's soft you can form it into, say, a helmet.
     <jmd> oh... weird...
  <mendel> jmd -- I dunno, almost as silly as making a HAT out of GRASS.
         * jmd suggests steel
  <zoratu> steel is bad for helmets.
  <mendel> Er, steel's pretty heavy, you know. But I guess that's why you don't make helmets.
     <jmd> well, iron?
     <jmd> what'd they use in 14th centuryish
     <jmd> not shit from flowers
  <mendel> Pith helmets were not worn by knights.
     <jmd> who else needs a helmet?
  <mendel> NOTE: NO-ONE ELSE IN HISTORY OR MODERNITY HAS WORN A HELMET
     <jmd> well, baseball players...
     <jmd> but I think those are plastic

[ten minutes pass, conversation turns to foreskin reattachment surgery and beyond]

     <jmd> $100 says the average person has no idea what a pith helmet is