Just a little addendum to my sunflower post a few days ago …

Trying to identify the smaller thistle-like plant growing beneath the sunflowers, I looked up “niger seed,” a fine, black bird seed I’d always thought was from a thistle.

As it turns out, the seed is not from a thistle. It’s not even a seed; it’s a fruit. More interesting, however, is that suppliers of the seed — er, fruit — now sell it as “nyger” because “niger” looks too much like a certain racial slur.

Puh-LEEZE! There’s “polite.” There’s “politically correct.” And then there’s just plain ridiculous.