Friday thing : banned books mug

(The Replacement)

A bunch of years ago, my family bought me a mug with blacked-out titles of books typically banned in the U.S., which are then revealed when the mug gets hot. I cherished it because a) I love to read, b) I taught English [including some of this material], and c) I cannot get enough clever mugs¹ for my daily tea habit. I delightedly used this one for awhile until my dear well-meaning husband put it in the dishwasher and all of the magical censor marks disappeared along with most of the lettering. #SadTrombone

Obviously we could have purchased another right away as it wasn’t an exclusive, bespoke item, but I decided to hold a petty grudge wait a while since I did indeed have plenty of other mugs to use.

Fast-forward a couple of years to my husband & I driving around LA on my birthday getaway weekend, trying to find a good place to get a shot of the Hollywood sign, when we happened upon a “Prop Sale.” Unless I’m headed to the hospital [in an ambulance], I will stop for anything resembling a garage sale. This one was as wacky & weird as expected for the area but after a few minutes, I hadn’t found anything I really needed to take home. UNTIL I spotted my exact banned books mug NEW IN THE BOX. I scooped it up before any of the other shoppers² spied it and went to the man operating the sale. He looked at the box fondly and said “Oh, that was out here?” and I immediately felt a strange combination of dejection - aw darn, not really for sale? - mixed with I Need To Speak With Your Manager rising rage. I was getting that replacement mug. I decided to ignore his question and asked how much. He sighed, “I don’t know…$3?” I gestured urgently to my supportive³ husband who quickly pulled three ones from his wallet as the man went on wistfully: “I bought that for my wife a while ago⁴…I guess she didn’t really like it.” We were all momentarily sympathetic about his unfortunate gifting before I told him how much I loved it, that it was a great birthday present for me, and thanked him heartily. Then we bolted to our rental car before he (or his wife) could change their minds.

If I actually lived in LA, we might have that Ronald Reagan dummy in our Halloween decor. I would definitely have taken home the funky glass frog paperweight.

Now I think of that gentleman and his clearly dreary spouse and, of course, my own intrepid, loyal husband every time I drink my morning tea from this cheeky cup.
Then I handwash it and immediately place it back in the cupboard for safekeeping.

Clever, but not wily enough to withstand a dishwasher.

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1. My cupboard space says otherwise but I get clever with risers.

2. Startlingly aggressive for pretty average looking folk wandering around the neighborhood…

3. Probably a little scared, too. There were a lot of feelings wrapped up in that mug.

4. I honestly thought he was going to say she died and was then worried I might have to let him keep it after all or risk bad karma from being an insensitive, selfish asshole. #sweating