Gordon Bonnets

Gordon Bonnets is a fairly newly established millinery business in the city of Ankh-Morpork. It is set up at 16 Old Cobblers and it is suspected the generous patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Ankh-Morpork was a key factor in establishing the proprietress, Miss Fleur Gordon, in the shop.

Recently, with the advent of the railways and the establishment of The Altiplano Express Line, it is known that the village of Much-Come-Lately specialises in bonnets and headwear. It is possible Much-Come-Lately bonnets are now imported for sale in Ankh-Morpork, and where better to sell them?

Their advertising in The Compleat Ankh-Morpork offers The finest original bonnets, for all your bonnets, veiling, and other fascinating additions.

Annotation

Several explanations have been offered for the evolution of the universal cry of disbelieving scorn Gordon Bennett! which rings across the created Multiverse whenever somebody, usually in a position of authority, pulls a stunt which is so incompetent, unbelievably stupid, and for preference tinged with self-serving audacity, that the observer can barely believe the evidence of what their eyes and ears were telling them. One that rings plausibly true - although the expression was in use long before 1942 - concerns a Rust-like general called Gordon Bennett, who led an Australian Army division from one defeat to another catastrophe all the way through the disastrous Malayan campaign. With the remnants of his command bottled up in Singapore awaiting final defeat and Japanese captivity, General Bennett queue-jumped his way onto one of the last ships able to leave the beleaguered island, citing as his reason a need to regroup and establish his command post elsewhere. He chose to do this in Australia, a long way from Singapore, effectively having abandoned 22,000 Australian soldiers to death, capture, and captivity. The Australians have a fairly direct way with generals who do things like this; he was apparently demoted quite a few ranks and put in charge of digging field latrines somewhere in the Outback.