Tears of joy?

I was making dinner tonight and the recipe called for onion. No big deal. I use onion all the time. I chop onion all the time. You know that thing about onions making you cry? Well, I'll get a particularly potent onion and may have to blink a few times, but nothing tragic.

In the cookbook, my instructions say:

Using a box grater, grate the onion directly into the skillet.

You should know that the skillet had been sizzling for a few minutes before this step occurred. I took my grater and my onion and started to grate. And then those tiny tiny shreds of onion hit the heat. And that onion filled heat drifted towards my eyes. OH MY GOODNESS. Bad idea. Bad, bad idea. My eyes did not water. They did not cry. They flooded with tears. And pain. And tears. And pain. And then my nose got in on the action and began to run. In a matter of seconds I had gone from 0-10 in a full out sob. It wasn't pretty.

I love Ms. Rachel Ray, but I may have to send her an e-mail about this.