A pithy answer to a steely question about helmets

Today’s question: I was watching a World War ll movie and noticed every army had steel helmets except the Japanese army. Was that because of a shortage of steel or a cultural belief? A cultural belief against steel? I suppose if you looked long enough and hard enough you could find something like that. If you do, talk among yourselves, OK?

If you poke around on the Internet you will find quite a busy market for World War II Japanese helmets. I guess some people are just into that. None of my business.

However, as far as I can tell, most of the helmets Japan used during the war were made of steel.

It is entirely possible, depending on which movie you were watching, that you saw someone wearing a pith helmet.

Pith, or sun, helmets were common for many years among military people and civilians, Japanese and otherwise, who found themselves in hot climates. Maybe they still are.

Such helmets are made from pith, the tough, woody inner fiber of the cork oak tree or the sola plant. I don’t know if they had much bulletstopping power, but they probably were more comfortable in the sun than a steel hat.

I enjoy having satellite radio in my car because I like old-time radio shows. In the credits, the announcer uses the term “transcribed” on such and such date. Today we use the term “recorded” for that purpose. Why the difference, is there a reason?

“Transcribed” in this case meant programs were recorded and sent to stations or networks on a disc.

You can read all about this at goldenageradio.com