Boners. Tea hee!

Via Warren Ellis, a collection of Tea Party signs featuring boners of grammar or spelling (or both!) rivaling G.W.B.'s malapropisms. These are amusingly being called "Teabonics."

In related news, my stepmom dropped several during her visit; although she certainly has her fair share of wingnuttery in her head, she was talking about innocuous things at the time. My favorite was when she described how a little tweak to a cooking recipe made the results "excrementally" better. (My brother made a click like a bomb about to explode, then refused to meet my eyes. Pat elbowed me furiously -- I thought because he thought I was very naughty for seeking Rob's gaze, but I discovered later that it was because he wanted to know if I'd heard it.)

I'm gonna say it: the original Tea Party was full of shit, too. (Mind that my source isn't exactly official, but #5 and #2 here sum it up nicely, if somewhat controversially.) But the current movement is not populated by our intellectual cutting edge. And that's all I need to say.

Today would have been my Grandma Red's birthday. She taught me how to embroider, bake, and drive, and was one of the darlings of my life. Her wise and temperate advice about marriage, I think, is the principal reason our marriage has flourished so well; she gave me a realistic and ambitious approach to relationships that contributes to my every day happiness and joy. She loved Cecile Brunner roses, lemon cucumbers, and birds. She also had a wicked sense of humor and she and my mother were locked for her entire life in a death-spiral of terrifying April Fools' pranks which I did my best to dodge lively. The last time we spent her birthday together, we frosted a cake with wasabi for her. Damned if she didn't eat her whole slice, saying, "There's some spice in this -- it's good!" while we all slowly choked down our own, wondering when, God, WHEN could we quit eating it?

Love you, Grandma.