Sticker Shock

Stabbing and steering my pickup down La Cienega today, commuting alone (a very high utilization of passenger capacity by L.A. standards--1/3), I observed the following:

A silver Audi TT coupe (have you seen any other colors?) bearing two stickers--one on the rear window and one on the trunk. Through their incongruency, if in my opinion only, these served as proud badges of confused altruism and misguided patriotism (have you seen any other kinds?).

The first, on the center of the rear window, was the mandatory for neo-Buddhists, "FREE TIBET" sticker, which I have no quarrel with--every actress should stand for something. The second was one of those magnetic goddamn ribbons we will never be free of. It was the latest rendition of the apparition--yellow with a black mourning band on one 'arm' and of course, "Support Our Troops."

If I was a Tibetan watching the way Iraq was being set FREE, I'd be pounding down my glacier water, my goat cheese, and hopping on the first toboggan right the fuck out of there, before any Troops showed up. No matter how well supported.

I watched as Audi-Doody made a right at the light, headed to a job making wrist bracelets of asbestos embossed with "LIVE STRONG".