Should you be so inclined, you could do a lot worse than to buy a few of these. They'll be useful now, thru the election, and after the election. They will be a great memento of the debacle that is Election 2016. I don't know about Amazon's return policy on t-shirts, but it's probably pretty....ahem...liberal.
Have fun, and don't forget to vote!
Mother's Day is coming up again! Mother's Day 2016 will be celebrated on Sunday, May 8. I used to work in a steakhouse, and Mother's Day was one of the busiest days of the year. We always put on extra staff, and ordered extra steak, and sure enough the moms and their families would flood in!
And the grandmas too. Oh, the lovely grandmas! I remember pink lace and corsages and smiling faces. Mothers sometimes looked stressed because, after all, even on Mother's Day you don't get to stop changing diapers, wiping mouths, teaching table manners, and racing arounda after unruly 2-year olds. But grandmas...they're just happy to be around the kids and grandkids.
But back to mom. I come from a big family, so it was always a challenge to buy something unique. One year I bought her some cheap perfume (I was 8, what did I know?) because it had a picture of a horse on the label and I knew she liked horses. She never wore it, but did display the bottle prominently on her dresser for a few weeks. Moms are like that. (I shudder today to think what a cologne that had a horse on the label might smell like!)
I'm lucky that my mom is still around and healthy. I know a lot of people who've lost their moms way too soon. So if your mom, grandma, mother in law, or great grandma is around, I have one word of advice: spoil. Spoil her rotten! She deserves it!
Here are some fun, funny, cute and weird (circus??) tshirts that would make great gifts for your mom. You can click on any of the titles to be taken directly to a page where you can purchase. But hurry, remember that with online sales it can take from several days to a couple of weeks to receive your item.
And Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!
These kinds of truly spontaneous moments are so rare in politics, so unique amidst the dull rhetoric and sound bytes of the season, that they become iconic. The fact that the bird happened to alight in Portland of all places gave the incident a feeling of serendipity at the least, or providence at the most. Who doesn't recall the Portlandia tv show, and its "put a bird on it" episode?
While the Portlandia bird appears to be a Northern Cardinal (even though there are no Northern Cardinals in Oregon), the little fella that made an appearance on Sanders' podium was a house finch. Never mind, it's the thought that counts, right?
Enter the t-shirt designers! So many fun, cute and silly tshirts out there! We've collected our five favs. You can click the titles of any of them to go and buy them. Fun to wear all summer, and a great commemorative item to save for the future.
Years ago, a number of prominent psychologists put forth a theory that autism was caused by "Refrigerator Mother Syndrome", which is exactly as it sounds: a completely ludicrous and now utterly discredited theory that blamed autism on parents (especially mothers) who lacked maternal warmth. Bruno Bettelheim hypothesized that improper breastfeeding and other cold and distant behaviors that deprived the children of proper bonding. How awful must it have been to be a mother (or father) of an autistic child and to be told that your subconscious rejection was responsible! And this theory persisted until as recently as the 1960s.
Today, thank goodness, we know better. And science is learning more and more about the true nature of autism. We know that there is probably not one particular factor or cause, but rather a variety of genetic factors. We know that vaccines are probably not a factor. We know that only a lot more research will lead us to discover the true causes and possible cures for this ailment.
April is a great time to buy an Autism Awareness t-shirt to spread the word and promote awareness.
Further reading:
What causes autism? What we know, don’t know, and suspect
by ANDREW WHITEHOUSE, THE CONVERSATION 3 MAR 2016
10 Things People with Autism Want You to Know from the blog Autism Speaks
What we know now as compiled by Autism Speaks
It didn't take us long to find a wealth of funny anti-Trump tshirts at 3 of the biggest tshirt sources: Zazzle, Amazon, and Cafepress. For your amusement, we present our personal top ten!
And finally, while not strictly an anti Trump tshirt, this one is perfect for the 2016 election:
Donald Drumpf. Doesn't have quite the same ring of wealth and power as Donald Trump, does it? I mean, President Drumpf? Not bloody likely. Drumpf Towers? Nah. Drumpf Casino? I wouldn't spend a dime there. So the Donald can thank his lucky stars that his grandfather, Frederick Drumpf, started calling himself Frederick Trump. It's not known, according to the website Bustle, "... if he ever changed his name officially. Some have speculated that he didn’t want to be known as “Drumpf” because of prevailing prejudice against Germans (which would heighten, of course, during World War I)."
Still, the name Drumpf has spawned all kinds of spoofs and memes on the Internet, including more than one hashtag on Twitter. #makedonalddrumpfagain trended for days, and there's a website where you can get a "drumpfinator" extension for Chrome that changes the word Trump to the word Drumpf on every page you view.
Cue the tshirts!
That website also says that the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers group does the dying, as it has for the last 50+ years. What's funny is that the dye that is used appears orange when first added to the water, and then it miraculously turns "Irish green" within minutes. About 40 pounds of vegetable dye are used, and the process takes about 5 hours.
Other things that "go green" for St. Patrick's Day? The Leaning Tower of Pisa, the fountain at the White House ( a new tradition, started by the Obamas, to remind them of Chicago), the downtown canal in Indianapolis, and all the fountains in Savannah GA.
And don't forget that most Irish pubs - everywhere - will have green beer. No less an authority than Betty Crocker has a recipe for green beer!
According to Betty, the best way to do it is to use a very light colored beer (pale ale, pilsner). Use liquid green food coloring (the kind that comes in little squeeze bottles). Squeeze some (4-6 drops) food coloring in the bottom of your pint glass, and then slowly pour the beer in to the food coloring. This way, you don't have to stir the beer, which could make it go flat. Oh, and one more thing: if you think adding blue food coloring to yellow beer will give you green beer, experts say you're wrong! You'll end up with turquoise, and nobody wants to drink turquoise beer!
