Nice hat

I was walking Mark to school this morning when he pointed out some oddly groomed shrubs. "They look like fish skeletons," he said, and I nodded in agreement.

"Or like trees in a Dr. Seuss book," I said. They had that wacky cartoon-esque quality to them.

Suddenly, a kid zipped by us on his scooter. That in itself was not unusual; but the tall red-and-white striped hat he wore was. It was the same one worn by the Cat in the Hat, one of Dr. Seuss' best known characters.

I smiled and thought it was a funny coincidence, until another kid walked by sporting a similar hat. I smiled again, but this time it was a quizzical grin. Seemed kinda weird that we mentioned Dr. Seuss, and then two kids immediately appear wearing those hats.

Half a block later, three more boys passed me wearing the hats. It freaked me out a little. I've seen a lot of silly things walking Mark to school -- parents skipping, parents riding skateboards and scooters, parents dressed in pajamas, little kids in costume. But I'd never seen one (let alone five!) kids wearing the same goofy hat!

I wasn't the only one confused, though. As I approached the crosswalk, the crossing guard called out, "What's with all these crazy hats?"

I shrugged and answered, "I don't know!"

It wasn't until I got home that I remembered something I'd read on Mark's school calendar. I couldn't find it, though, so I had to wait until I got to work to confirm my suspicions.

As soon as I logged on, I opened Google, intending to search for "Dr. Seuss' birthday." As it turns out, I didn't need to. The Google banner was transformed into this:


And suddenly all the hats made sense. Obviously, there's a birthday party at school today, even if the guest of honor won't be there.

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!