Bitch & Kitsch - Ed Polish and Ephemera - 30 Years of Sarcasm Served Daily!

If laughter is the best medicine, then Ed Polish and Ephemera provide a prescription-strength antidote for ailing attitudes in these trying times.

2010 marks 30 years since Ed started his business that uses the juxtaposition of sweet vintage images with jarring, modern slogans. Polish grew up watching Jerry Lewis and reading Mad Magazine (we share a common fan-boy love of Alfred E. Neuman and his famous quotes). A life-long collector and influenced by the punk-rock movement, Ephemera got it's start creating buttons. The line has since vastly expanded to magnets, mugs, napkins, calendars and the wonderful world of publishing.

"Pissing off the world one person at a time"

When asked about any 30 year celebrations, Ed is surprisingly low-key. "It's only time..." and while he has nothing planned for this auspicious anniversary, he did have a party for his 28th year in business. He has no real explanation but I couldn't help but make the correlation of 28 being 4 in dog years due to his "bitch"-laced themes. Let's see if there's a 35th year (5 in dog) Gala.

We were also curious how Ephemera comes up with a seemingly never-ending supply of pure comic gold. In addition to "writing a lot" they also take suggestions from writers and comedians. If you are an aspiring humorist, there are guidelines on their website but be forewarned, the odds are against you. Only 1 out of 1,000 submissions are used.

As we were ending our interview, I asked for any words of advice (words to live by) and Ed left me with this gem...

"Being weird isn't enough" - Ed Polish 6/22/10

Oh Boy! postscript:
We would be remiss in not mentioning that we have a nice assortment of Ephemera products for sale on our humble website!

P.S.S. - I've just been schooled in Math (by my younger sister). 28 Human Years = 196 in Dog Years and 35 Human Years = 245 in Dog Years. This totally voids my correlation made above. It also shows how Mathematics is not one of my strong suites. And it totally blows what I thought was an awesome "bit".