h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice article. Just though I'd add the water polo cap, since it is (technically) a swimming cap ... well, kind of. It's more or less a cloth cap like the traditional plastic one you described except that Polo players are usually large, tall, and strong types of guys and gals who tend to remember who laughs at their caps so that they can, later on, accidentally lose contol of the ball, hurling it with astonishing precision into the unprepared offending spectator's face. Heheh. The Water Polo cap sometimes has hard plastic ear coverings to aid in Polo players' efforts to keep their ears from being painfully bashed by other players' elbows and such in the heat of competition, and also to aid in the crucial Polo strategy of failing to hear the referee's whistle. Oh, the caps are also colored and have numbers so that people can tell who's on which team and who fouled who and who needs to be kept out past the 4m line and other things.