Mrs. Peel, We're Needed...

Patrick Macnee, the last man in the world who could wear a bowler hat properly, passed away Thursday at 93.

Macnee starred as John Steed, who was never without his hat and umbrella, in the British television series The Avengers. Steed worked with several partners as a pair of "agents extraordinary" who avenged "extraordinary crimes against the people...and the state." The best-known, and in the minds of many, the best bar none of those partners was Mrs. Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg. Rigg was the martial artist booty kicker of the pair, decked out in mod catsuits and swinging 60s fashions while Steed retained jacket, tie, umbrella (concealing a sword, of course) and the classic bowler.

Macnee rarely lacked for work, lending his own wit to whatever character he played and pretty much personifying English reserve, style and class in most of them.

And now, at last, those living in the afterlife may have instruction on the proper way to wear the rounded-top bowler hat. Which is good, because eternity's a long time to go wearing your hat the wrong way.