Wednesday, June 07, 2006

It's graduation time...wear your academic biretta!



Ciao and welcome to the busiest clerical freight line in the world! I took this photo inside the hallowed Gammarelli clerical shop in Rome. Mister Gammarelli is the private tailor to the Pope!

The leftover clerics from the turbulent 1960s don't like this innocent hat, the biretta. Writhing with fear of anything "too Catholic" they say that it shouldn't be worn anymore by anyone. Because we have to be more cunning than the devil, to these draft dogers I reply: "Hey, if Signor Gammarelli says it's cool, then it's a big phat cool, basta!"

6 comments:

Lawrence Lew OP said...

Yet another excellent pic! Keep 'em coming!

Anonymous said...

What are the blue birettas for?

Anonymous said...

Excelletn... wish I knew what the blue ones are for...

Anonymous said...

These are not academic birettas - they are the ordinary sort. Academic ones are black, and have four vanes, and no tuft.

The blue ones could be violet - artifical light causes this colour shift in photos.

Anonymous said...

So who would wear a violet (as opposed to purple) biretta?

Black Biretta said...

Blue is for Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Green is for Doctor of Canon Law
(JCD)

Dark Red is for Doctor of Theology (STD or ThD)