Readers with long memories will recall that last year when we made the annual July trek to the Texas Panhandle for an O’Brien family reunion, the California contingent was met at the cabin in Palo Duro Canyon with a big-screen TV locked to Fox News and a signed photo of Cindy and John McCain on the mantle.

My daughter and her cousins quickly turned the cabin front door into O’Briens for O’Bama HQ by cutting up an adulatory People magazine spread on the soon-to-be First Family and making a bunch of signs.

A year later, the pranking goes on — when we walked into the cabin kitchen over the weekend, we were met by this bloomin’ Obama chia head.

It was meant in good fun, and we took it that way. But I was sure some, if not our president himself, would be more sensitive. So I just Googled “Obama chia racist” and found that Walgreen’s, for instance, stopped selling the item in April after objections from some customers.

There was no W. chia head, someone pointed out in the comments section to a wire-service story.

What do you think?

By the way, the Panhandle is a gorgeous place. People say, You’re going to Texas, in the summer? Got that right — it’s God’s country. Thunderstorms each afternoon kept it cooler than … than here, for instance. The view from the beautiful Lyons family porch on a breezy Saturday:

Go to Larry Wilson’s Public Eye

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