So today my boss was in a super cranky mood because of both external factors and the fact that people from other departments kept asking her questions about costumes that don’t exist yet. All she wanted to do was make costumes in a room full of other people making costumes, but other people kept interrupting that plan of action and she was getting crankier by the second. FInally she said that she needed an “approach with Caution” sign. Someone found some caution tape and made her sash, which instantly improved her mood and warned people to think again before they bothered her with inanities. Once again, costuming solves all problems.
We decided to keep the caution sash with our Cranks Hat, which is not a hat at all but an awesome unicorn mask. 
Truly, it is awesome, no? The Cranks Hat’s purpose is twofold. One, if you put it on everyone in the room knows that you are cranky. Two, it makes you feel better pretty much instantly, because all of a sudden you are a badass unicorn with glitter on your nose and no one can fuck with your mood. Other departments in the theater have cranks hats, but none are as awesome as ours. (Stage Ops has a black Egyptian Smurf hat, which my First Hand made for them after our production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I know Team Electrics has a cranks hat but I don’t remember what it looks like.)
I feel like a lot of hurt feelings and miscommunications in the world could be solved by the practical application of a cranks hat and/or caution sash. If we knew before we approached someone where they were in their heads at that instant, and judged their reactions not by what they said but what we knew they were going through, maybe we’d be a little easier on each other and think of each other a little more kindly. Or, at the very least, you’d have a harder time being judgy about someone’s tone when they were wearing an awesome unicorn mask. Think about it.
Solving the world’s problems one costume at a time.
Peculiar Intimacies 