The 10/6 Mystery

.
Some people may not know the meaning of the tag on the famous Hatter hat. What on earth could 10/6 mean?

Until recently I know I didn't!

I've since discovered that the meaning of the cryptic tag was actually just a price.
10 shillings and 6 pence in British currency before it became decimalised. In Carols time a pound was 20 shillings and shillings were twelve pennies or pence.

The pound was represented, as it still is, by a £ sign, the shilling by a 's' and the penny by a 'd'.

The d used to represent a penny was short for 'denarius'. Originally the name for a Roman silver coin it was also the other name the British silver coin was known by.

The next question is why was the tag on the hat he was wearing?

Hatters used to market their produce by wearing it. People often could pick a hatter by noting their bizarre behaviour. This was often confirmed by seeing the tag. If the hat was any good and fairly priced the hatter had a chance of getting a new customer.

So there you have it. The reason for the tag was to indicate further the Hatters occupation.

Here I had been thinking that it was just another little eccentricity.


.

Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?

.

The famous riddle was originally written by Carroll with every intention of not being answered.
Despite there being no answer it is not surprising that readers have wanted to have one.

 They had puzzled over it trying to make sense of the nonsense afterall.

 This is why Carroll and others, including Sam Lloyd a noted puzzle master, did devise an answer.

It was written inside the preface to the 1896 edition...

"Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter’s Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer,: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!". This, however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle as originally invented, had no answer at all"


There are many other answers to the riddle too! Some of them listed on wickipedia are...

• "Poe wrote on both."
• "The notes for which they are noted are not musical notes."\
• "Both have inky quills."
• "Because both can make you think about the blackness of life."
• "Both should be made to shut up."
• "They both have legs."

Others I've found are...

• "Because you cannot ride either one of them like a bicycle." 
• "Because neither one of them is made from aluminum,"

Perhaps the best answer is that there is no real answer so all answers are right!

Little Intro

Well as the title suggests this blog is for those who are Mad about Hatter!

From the well loved character from the classic novel there have been several adaptions for the screen, comics and fan fictions.

Each adaption brings with it a new dimension to the idea of the Mad Hatter so it's almost fair to say there are several Mad Hatters running around.

Personally I  love each of them because they are all unique and wonderfully mad!

The fellow members of the MAD HATTER FAN ASSOCIATION (So far an illustrious institution of 2 members exactly) and I have decided it would be fun to salute each incarnation and bring together all kinds of interesting clips and things.

We hope you enjoy the results!