So, I was flipping through this week’s Entertainment Weekly, and I come across a brief article on style and the history and popularity of the porkpie hat in pop culture. There are photos of famous people wearing the odd-shaped chapeau — Buster Keaton, Sinatra, Johnny Depp, Tom Waits. Leah Greenblatt, the writer of the article, even mentions that “Charles Mingus made it the subject of his most famous song, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” — the “most famous” part is definitely a debatable statement. However, she left out the most famous, coolest wearer of the porkpie. She left out Lester.

“Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” was not a song dedicated to the hat itself. It was dedicated to the strange and beautiful man who donned the saucer-like lid. Mingus wrote the song shortly after Lester Young’s passing. Would it be safe to say that the popularity of the porkpie is due to the fact that a man as eccentric and nonconformist as Lester Young chose it as part of his wardrobe?

This isn’t a criticism of Greenblatt or the article. She was just doing her job, and despite the exclusion of Lester Young, it is still an interesting piece. But to have pictures of all these men and women who have donned the porkpie and not include Lester…well, that’s what Catholics would call a venial sin.