ooh traffic jam got more cars than a beach got sand

Ok, Rachel just came in with a toy Ninja Turtle on a surfboard and said, "Mommy look, he's hanging six." Naturally I asked her why he was hanging six instead of hanging ten. Apparently it's because dear Donatello has only six toes.

Is that the origin of that expression for surfers? I didn't think your toes hung anywhere. ROFL. Someone enlighten me, please. Right now my project is trying to figure out who was the first person to come up with the car ribbon magnet.

I'm really sick of car ribbon magnets. They're freaking everywhere now. I refuse to put one on my car. It's like every organization said, "well we can't let them have all the awareness and support. We need a magnet too!" That because all the Americans who love to jump on the "me too" wagon had to slap one on their car. It's out of control. I was behind a car that the pattern on the magnet looked like Tony the Tiger. What the hell were they symbolically supporting, zoos? The freedom to eat cereal at every meal? Personally, I think it's now trivialized the original concept. There are so many I actually don't even look at what they stand for anymore. I saw one car with like six or eight of them lined up across the trunk.

The first ones I remember seeing were the pink ribbons for breast cancer. At least that was geared toward fund raising and awareness. I think 40 or 50 % of the purchase price went to the Komen fund. Unfortunately capitalism reared it ugly head. How many of those people sporting yellow ribbons on the back of their cars picked one up on the counter of the Mobil station or local convenience store? Support our troops while some novelty manufacturer laughs his way to a profit. You want to support our troops? Instead of slapping a ribbon on your car, give the money to families of veterans, or organizations that help homeless vets get back on their feet. Send them a care package. Write your congressman and urge them to resolve the conflict in Iraq so no more of them die. That'd be a start.

Why do we feel the need to advertise our affiliations? I suppose the origins lay in fostering camaraderie to strengthen and build up the ranks. It also has the potential to be divisive, no, if the issue people are taking sides on is volatile? I wonder if any passionate anti-war protester has ever smashed in the windshield or slashed the tires of a car proudly bearing its pro-Bush God Bless America flag magnet along side the yellow ones?

Yet why should I care? All in all, it's a free country. Oh, that's it! All y'all are free to have magnets, and I am free to be annoyed and rant about it. Crap if only we could put our minds to something more constructive, the world would be a better place.