The word on the street is “watch what they do, not what they say”. Except when it’s “believe them when they tell you what they’re going to do”. Or try Dorothy Parker’s phone greeting: “what fresh hell is this?”

Well, when you’re trying to figure out what the hell the new regime in Washington is up to, there’s some visual evidence from the Inauguration ceremony to be considered. I refer, of course, to the hats worn by the first consort and the lady in waiting.

Melania’s peculiar chapeau (are we still allowed to use French?) was clearly inspired by the hat-like decorations worn by ladies of the British royal family to weddings and coronations, often called fascinators. Ivanka’s headpiece was an echt fascinator, perched on the side of her head. Both of them, clearly, are announcing that the Trumps, emulating the Windsors, are a new royal family.

Then there are the DOGEs. Someone who chose that acronym for the administration’s dictators-in -chief must have been thinking of the Italian doges. They were heads of state in the former republics of Venice and Genoa, autocrats, oligarchs, the whole nine yards. Elon Musk is angling for the job it seems. -more-