A Convergence of Two Things I Love: My Anti-Bush Button and My Eight-Year-Old Cousin

Sometimes I think I shouldn’t wear an anti-Moron Puppet button on my bag everywhere I go. It has occured to me that overtly expressing a political opinion in the home of someone who employs me to teach their child math might be overstepping my bounds. But then I think, “I don’t want the filthy money of anyone who doesn’t agree with the sentiment of this button. I only want the filthy money of people who do agree with the sentiment of this button.”

I really love my anti-Moron Puppet button. It’s the one with the high-contrast image of the Moron Puppet’s head in the middle of a red universal “NO” sign. I used to have one that said the word BUSH in the middle of a “NO” sign, but it was not as pleasing to me. The word BUSH was printed over the diagonal red line, for one, thus making it seem like BUSH should overcome the “no” sign, instead of the other way around. For two, the word BUSH all the time is a bit much. Then you get into all the bush-related puns, which I am just not always in the mood for. Sexual/political double entendres are only amusing to me the first several hundred times.

The image button is much better. The Moron Puppet’s head is just unrecognizeable enough to make it bearable for daily viewing, and yet recognizeable enough to get your point across. I am nothing if not stringent in my standards for the graphic design of my political buttons.

I was visiting my aunt, uncle and cousins up in Westchester the other night when my eight-year-old cousin pointed at the button and said, “Who’s that?”

“Who do you think it is?” I said.

“Bush,” she said.

“How did you know?” I asked. “It’s kind of hard to see who it’s supposed to be.”

“Well, because that pin says to cross that guy out, and I thought about people I’d like to cross out, and I thought of Bush.”

As her father says, she’s a very deep child.