The Story Behind Frederick City Wrestling – The Hat

This is the story of a hat. But it doesn’t start in a warehouse with advanced molding and fabric machinery. It begins with the cross-face cradle. Actually, this entire post can be summed up with that single wrestling move. The cross-face cradle also sums up the relationship I had with my brother when I was a sophomore in high school. You see, he was a baseball player but for some reason he decided to try out for the wrestling team during his senior year. What was even worse for me, he MADE the wrestling team!

It’s only natural that when he got home from wrestling practice he’d continue to practice on his little brother, right? Yikes! I’ll say this, though– I had some athleticism too but my wheelhouse was basketball and, more specifically, riding the bench for a private school JV team. So, hmmm, how am I going to defend myself when I have no wrestling experience and my best skill is clapping for teammates while in a seated position. The good news was that because my brother was so new to the sport of wrestling, he didn’t know a lot of moves. The bad news: The one move he DID know, he was really good at. The cross-face cradle.

Maybe all of this sounds dramatic (and traumatic??) but it really is something we’ve looked back on fondly. My brother, the athlete, becoming a wrestler at a public school in Miami, Florida. His signature move frustrated opponents every match. Seasoned wrestlers went down as my brother crushed their hopes and dreams. It was fun to watch all my suffering pay off for him even if I should’ve went to therapy because of it. 😁

Nathan went on to college and even tried out for Florida State baseball. I tell you that just to illustrate how good of a baseball player and athlete he was and is. So it makes sense that even one season of wrestling became another sport on the list of things my brother’s good at. Fast forward a few decades and the cross-face cradler himself was diagnosed with brain cancer. Since finding that out late in 2025, he’s been through 6 weeks of treatment and continues to travel the road of recovery and, to be quite honest, uncertainty. Around this time, I had been talking with another sibling about teaming up for a creative business venture. We decided on hats. After lots of ideas being tossed around and design practice, we came up with a couple of keepers and one is connected to our brother Nathan.

Frederick City. This is going to the theme of hats designed with my brother in mind. I picked wrestling as the first one because even though I still have PTSD about the cross-face cradle, Nathan’s success impressed me back then and I think about it with a smile on my face. There’s obviously much more to Nathan than high school wrestling so be on the lookout in the coming months as more Frederick City designs pop up on hats in our official Etsy store… Wild Hat Designs. Also make a note that a portion of every Frederick City hat sale goes directly to Nathan to help him and his family with costs for travel to the cancer center, hotel, food, dog boarding, etc.

You might also be wondering how Nathan is connected to the Frederick City theme. There’s a clear link between the two and when you hear it, you might get upset that you didn’t guess it right away. I post every day at 1pm central so check back later this week for the explanation of Frederick City. In the meantime, pick up a hat, sport the first Frederick City hat ever designed, and help support my brother on his cancer(-free) journey.

-Out of the Wilderness

The iPhone 17 Crash Zoom Detectives Commercial – The Actors and More

They don’t usually solve crimes… but when they try, it’s shot on an iPhone. We first saw these sleuths in an iPhone 13 commercial where one had main character energy and the other was, well, blurry. But now they’re both in focus with a whole new crime they probably won’t solve. And that’s OK because that’s not the point. Watch the detectives do their thing in a brand new iPhone 17 commercial then scroll down for more!

The Actors. Reprising their roles in these “high stakes” iPhone movies are actor/painter Tate Ellington (@TateEllington) and artist/actor Eme Ikwuakor (@Ikwuakor). This is the third time the pair have joined together to “fight crime” and maybe one day we’ll get a full-length movie. You know, one where we actually see the crime and, even better, the resolution of said crime. I love these ads for a few reasons:

  1. Satirical- highlighting the sneaky way movies can draw the audience in just by using certain technical methods. Each of the iPhone commercials are saturated in one serious aspect or another pertaining to filmmaking and draws a lot of humor from that.
  2. We never actually see the duo solve any crimes… which is hilarious. In all three ads, they talk about the crime, they’re working towards solving it, but nothing actually happens to catch the criminals.
  3. The “overacting” by the actors is actually not overacting at all. Just super dramatic to sort of poke fun at all the thriller movies we love. In one sense, these actors are acting like overacting actors, which must be hard for actors to act like.

Here are the first two Apple ads with the detectives.

What do you think about the new addition to the detectives catalogue of commercials? I’m a fan. Looking forward to the next one!

-Out of the Wilderness

College National Champs and Super Bowl Champions in Florida?

The football season in college and the NFL has been like an episode of Stranger Things. Bad teams are good and good teams aren’t even in the playoffs. For college, one of the best teams all year, Ohio State, was eliminated in their first playoff game after having a bye for the first week. Texas was the pre-season #1 and they missed the playoffs completely. In the NFL, the Patriots and the Bears are good. The Chiefs didn’t even make the playoffs.

But wouldn’t it be wild if two teams that haven’t been that good in the last few years, the University of Miami and the Jacksonville Jaguars end up being the champions of football? Miami is one of four left and still have a tough road ahead. The Jaguars are peaking going into the playoffs so it’s very possible that the state of Florida is home to two champions in the highest levels of football.

And I didn’t even mention the Tampa Buccaneers! Their destiny is in the hands of the New Orleans Saints. If the Saints march past the Falcons, the Bucs will go marching into the playoffs.

Fun times ahead in the football world.

-Out of the Wilderness

Two Best College Football Moments – 2025

College football has been quite entertaining this season. It’s nice not being tied to any particular team because then I get to cheer for whoever I want for any reason. Underdog? Sure! Whoever plays against Alabama? You know it! The playoffs have narrowed the teams down to four: Ole Miss, Miami, Oregon, Indiana. Some of the best didn’t finish the season like they’d hoped but there are still two best moments from what I’ve seen this season. Of course, there are incredible catches, comebacks, and quarterbacks, but off the field is where my favorite things happened.

  1. The ACC referees letting viewers in on yellow flag and challenge decisions. They call it the game-day review center. Every game should have this.

2. Brutus crossing out the M and writing Ohio in the snow during the Michigan game.

There are tons more great moments but these are my top 2. What are your favorites from the season?

-Out of the Wilderness