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A friend of mine just left town. The place was changing, he complained.

"I moved here to get away from the hipsters," he said. "Bastards followed me."

So he sold his loft, grabbed his guitar and his funny hat and left Birmingham to pursue his mid-life doctorate. And I just shook my head. Because I know that the first stage of hipsteria is denial. Hipsters hate hipsters. Almost as much as they hate national restaurant chains and genetically modified foods.

Birminghipster Ian Hoppe acknowledges his own hipster tendencies. Which might just mean he's not as hipster as we thought. (Justin Yurkanin)

But he's right about Birmingham. It is becoming Hipsterham.

All of a sudden Birmingham is infested with hipsters. All those giant lenses and Doc Martens and flannels. You can't walk a block downtown without tripping over a pair of skinny jeans.

I don't really know whether the explosion of local beer brought the hipsters to Birmingham or if the hipsters started Birmingham's beer boom in the first place. But if you want to find them, just pop open a local IPA. And offer to pay.

But be careful. I have a theory – as yet unproven – that hipsters are like gremlins. Feed them craft beer after midnight they multiply.

You would be wise to learn to recognize the hipster. Because someday, when they quit the band and move out of mom's basement, one will be your boss.

Here's what you need to know.

A hipster knows the wi-fi code at every locally owned coffee shop downtown. You can find them in a corner with their iMac, listening to a band you've never heard of on noise-reducing headphones.

Don't ask them about the rock band splashed across their T-shirt. A hipster will invariably respond to such questions with an impatient: "They suck now. I haven't really listened to them since their sophomore album."

The guy you see strapping his bike to the front of a MAX bus? That's a hipster. The hippest of the hip will brag that they do not even know how to drive (but will take a ride if you don't mind).

Hipsters wear glasses so big you can see them roll their eyes across the room.

You'll never see a hipster at the mall, or a ball game. You'll find them at the dog park or the library. Or driving prices up in a once-blighted part of town.

Hipsters have obscure tattoos that make you feel like an idiot. The hippest hipster I know – he disputes he is a hipster, if you need proof – has a tattoo of Ohm's Law (I=V/R) on his arm.

"I used to be an electrician," he explains, as hipsters do, pointing to his vintage electrician's belt buckle as if for ID.

Hipsters develop a look that both smiles and implies ... idiot. Like my tattooed friend Ian Hoppe. On his other arm is a matching tattoo that reads P=VI.

"That's the power formula," he said. "They are related." And then the look that completes the sentence: idiot.

As if I didn't feel it already.

But the truth is, Birmingham has changed, and these people we call hipsters have had a big hand in changing it. They make us think of the old as vintage, and help make it new again. They look at the new as exciting, at challenges as opportunities. They look at a town too often dismissed by older folks as stuck in its ways, and they see adventure and creativity.

Take Avondale, for instance. Just don't ask a hipster about it.

"Avondale is so four years ago," they'll say.

Ah yes. It's hard for an old guy to admit, but all hail the hipster. Long live Hipsterham.

If you groan at the thought, don't worry. Just look at yourself and admit it. Maybe you are the hipster.

Are you a hipster? Take the quiz below to find out: