May 27, 2005 - No Edhat on Monday

This weekend is Memorial Day. It is a day to remember our soldiers who paid the ultimate price. Over 1,000,000 soldiers have died, in and out of battle, while defending our country. There have also been almost 1,500,000 soldiers wounded. World War II and the Civil War contributed the most to that total. Recent wars have been less costly with regard to loss of human life. According to the Veteran’s Administration, there are over 17 million living veterans in the United States. We give our thanks to them at the end of the summer.

Yesterday, the dedicated staff of edhat.com went out to survey car bumper stickers that show support of our living troops and calls for peace. We also took the opportunity to record leftover presidential campaign stickers and American flag decals. The notions of peace and support for our troops are not mutually exclusive. There isn’t a politician alive who would tell you they don’t agree with both. Peace and the elimination of additional soldiers on our list for Memorial Day is the ultimate goal on everyone’s agenda.

The “support our troops” stickers, shaped as large ribbons, and sold in different colors and patterns were the runaway winner in our contest. Ribbons have been popular with the socially conscious crowd for quite some time. They are worn to show support for causes like breast cancer research and AIDS awareness. Car ribbons, however, are a relatively new phenomenon. They are most commonly used to show support for troops and also for asking for Divine approval for our country. But, like those yellow wristbands, they have expanded into other areas as well.

A strategic problem with the ribbons is their size. They’re bigger than the usual rectangle stickers, and because they’re more vertical than horizontal, they don’t fit as well on people’s cars. You certainly can’t put them on the bumper. Pretty much the only place they fit is on the hatchback of an SUV or the rear tailgate of a truck. Tying a yellow ribbon around the old sedan requires that you put it on your trunk. You need an angle, too. Otherwise it will wrap around to the top.

Some car some owners (definitely the non-OCD types) just slap it on the back to make it fit. Others show their linearity (and denial) by putting the sticker on the back of the car at a ninety-degree angle as if the ribbon was a regular across-the-back sticker. The last group of car owners have a more thought-out approach. They line up the writing on the sticker to the horizontal axis, so it reads from left to right without any slope at all.

For yesterday’s contest, after ribbons (21), the next most popular sticker was John Kerry (5) followed by Peace Signs (2) and lastly, George Bush (1). As far as ribbon placement, 24% were at ninety-degree angles, 19% were straight up and down, and 14% were at artistically inspired 45-degree angles. The other 53% appeared to be randomly placed – all rotated to the right but one.

The Garottee and 2728 both correctly ranked the top 3 bumper stickers and chose 17% as the straight-up percentage. The Edhat dog, who has never served her country, but once was severely wounded while running with a stick, was drafted into service to choose between two biscuits. It was a numbers game. 2728’s biscuit was chosen first, winning that subscriber two tickets to the Hawaiian music and dance performance this weekend – a memorable way to spend the weekend, we might add.

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