Hallmarked For Life

As the peachy-pink, floral bordered specter of Mother's Day rears its silvery head once more, the greeting card industry of America has apparently redoubled its efforts to transform us all into sentimental cretins of the most vapidly mawkish and saccharine kind. Indeed, the Mother's Day card aisle at my local store formed such a vast bouquet of pastel schmaltz that I became momentarily convinced that I was living on Mary Cassatt's wedding cake. Some of the images made Strawberry Shortcake look like Iron Man by comparison. I was forced to stagger over to a vivid display of metallic, high-performance energy drinks just to regain my equilibrium.