If you’ve not been aware that The Hat has been around a full year, and you’re wondering about the scintillating and provocative blogging that you’ve missed, permit me, then, a review.

Early on, I wrote about sidewalk art — not the chalk-drawn variety, but the more permanent kind.

Then we had the closing of Cabo’s and its rebirth as The Republic:

The animal world was represented, whether by hungry hawks, Maymont’s long-missing cat Bizarro, basketball-playing rats or a bear galumphing through the Charter Colony development.

I attended the inauguration of the president of the United States and got a pair of argyle socks, but I arrived beltless and shoeless to the Virginia Press Association awards.

Despite such wardrobe malfunctions, I wrote way too much about baseball and Movieland but also expressed my “Slapping Theory” of French cinema, courtesy of the French Film Festival.

I also noted the Richmond premiere of Sunshine Cleaning, a film written by our own Megan Holley.

I composed a hard-hitting, multiinstallment kvetch about street cleaning-as-scam that convinced the city to do not a thing different.

There was the Richmond (England) Flashback; Manchester judges turned into art critics; and the saga of 10 S. Boulevard blogger Peter Feddo.

I even delved into the mysteries of the ancient Kaballah.

And then there’s my ongoing affair with the Greater Richmond Transit Company, which has also included the semi-regular feature “Heard It on the GRTC,” which is, well, random remarks I’ve encountered while riding the bus.

I hope at least some of this has proved enjoyable and on occasion perhaps even insightful. Year Two will be … Year Two.