Term of the Moment: To get feathers

to get feathers to give oneself feathers, to give oneself stripes--Often on a small crew, the loudest and least competent person will try to start giving orders to the other stagehands, giving themselves feathers or stripes. Sometimes, a designer who doesn't know who the players are will take an incompetent stagehand and give them responsibilities they can't handle. When the stagehand gets feathers, they can become all puffed up. "Bill became insufferable when the designer gave him fathers. He eventually crashed and burned."

I think of George Carlin's "Indian Sergeant" comedy routine when I think of feathers and stripes.