[Ascot]

When I was born, my parents were both in grad school, so a lot of the childcare responsibilities landed on my maternal grandmother. She was a brilliant and nutty character who had me singing things like "There's a place in France where they don't wear any pants" when I was 3, much to the consternation of my mother who was much more proper. I'm sure that's a large part of the reason she taught me such things. She had some quirky expressions that still make me laugh today when I think about them.

If she was particularly irked about something, she would say, "Well that just fries my ice!" It always conjured up weird a visual of ice cubes skittering around in a cast-iron skillet.

Rather than simply remind me to go to the bathroom before we left the house, she would say "Go shed a tear for Garfield." Something assassination related, presumably.

If she thought someone was just being lazy and lolling about, she was known to ask, "What are you doing? Posing for animal crackers?"