“Bring the hat”

Here I am in L.A., visiting Vince’s family, and I’ve just learned a very important expression—so important I’m breaking my three-day vow of silence to bring you this:

Bring. The. Hat.

What does this credo mean? Well, let’s let Joey Bertolini, 15, explain it since it’s his coinage:

“So basically ‘bring the hat’ means to do the good thing or do the right thing, or like if you’re gonna do something then just kick ass while you’re doing it. So, for example [slurps grape juice], it could be used in place of ‘good luck,’ ‘break a leg’ or ‘you rock, man.’ Let’s say I was moving the furniture in my friend’s house. He would say to me, ‘All right, we gotta move this furniture, but we gotta bring the hat while we’re doing it.’ Or for example if I was running a 10K, before the gun went off, my friends would tell me to bring the hat.”

To clarify the past tense, says Joey:

“Never say, ‘brung the hat.’ It’s an insult. You have to say, ‘I just brought the hat.’ You can also say, ‘I just brought the hat all over BLANK.’ For example, ‘I just brought the hat all over that chemistry test.’

And finally: “Bring the hat has, to many, become more of a philosophy to base their life around than just a simple phrase. So always remember to bring the hat. In everything you do.”

liz | 6:01 PM | Uncategorized