Quassia Gnus Caps

I was out on the veranda early in the summer of 1997, reading in the sun with a double layer of sunglasses to keep the glare out of my eyes. "Gee," I though, "wouldn't it be nice if I had, like, a hat to give my eyes some shade?" But I cringed at the thought of actually going out and buying something as unhip as a cap, so I decided to make some Gnus caps instead, so that I could get one for myself without having to put me through a shameful trip to some place where they sell caps.

No sooner thought than announced, and I was off taking orders for the caps. Unfortunately, the people I scoped out to make the caps were less competent than the people who made the previous two shirts, and after I had dragged my heels, and they had dragged their heels, the caps weren't ready until September. By that time, it was too cold to read outside, and since the entirety of the summer of 1998 was colder than a very cold thing (cleverly avoiding similies), I still haven't had an occasion to use these myself. They are cotton caps, and they felt OK the short moments I wore them. Perhaps next summer I will be able to really test them.

There were 101 copies made, and they were available in a variety of thread color and cap color. All the thread was metallic, but of differing colors. I don't remember them all, but there were green with yellow thread; black with green thread; blue-jeans blue with red thread; red with green thread and white with green thread. (I meticulously picked out all the colors, but then the people who made the caps lost the list we had worked out, and I had to tell them which combinations to use over the phone. The color combinations worked out OK, though.)

Unfortunately, they charged me 23% more for the caps than we had originally agreed to, so I lost money on these one. Not much, but the entire experience was a downer, and a vowed never to do another Gnus merchandise thing -- until, at least, a couple months later.