You mention a golden hat, and people respond with:
- Tinfoil hat
- Wizard hat
- Blackhat/whitehat hackers
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
That looks like a nice cross-section of HN readers' typical interests. You could probably make some interesting demographic observations on the basis of this data.
P.S. Am I the only one who immediately thought of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland?
Apple announces iHat; people begin queuing at stores. Reddit tips its e-fedora, which is actually an e-trilby. Maker community angrily notes that the oldest surviving combination stealth television remote and infrared camera-blinder hat is now nearly 20 years old. Popehat.com reminds everyone that it is actually a law blog. Several geeks go off on their own to make their own rabbit fur felt, only better, because they're going to use Haskell instead of C.
Actual milliners gape in astonishment as a SV startup selling nothing but virtual digital hats is acquired for $350 million.
Then the tech industry catches sight of another shiny object.
P.S. Am I the only one who immediately thought of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland?