Students are patriotic: "United we stand", "Army National Guard" "Member: NY Army National Guard" and not at all: "anti-flag", "good riddance".

They have been to other colleges: "University Rochester", "Wells College, Aurora, NY", "Ithaca College", "Clarkson", and done some traveling: "Orleans, where sea and history meet, 1797-1997", "Cape Cod Tunnel, permit 17, resident", "Chemung Speedrome, Rt 17, exit 59, Chemung, NY Nascar Weekly Racing Series".

They are proud of their heritage: "Just another sexy Scot!" and proud of their children: "NEWARK VALLEY: I'm a Proud Parent of a Middle School Honor Roll Student".

They are law abiding and mature: "NY State Sheriffs Association 2000, 2001, Honorary Member" and slightly less so: "I'm not speeding, I'm qualifying".

They are especially loyal to Ithaca businesses: "Ithaca Guitar Works", "Bean there? Ithaca Bakery Collegetown Bagels", "Maxie's Supper Club & Oyster Bar, Ithaca, NY", "You Belong Here. Greenstar Coop", "Spikes BBQ, ithaca, NY. You Can't beat Spike's meat", but appreciate farmers: "Got food? Thank a Farmer" and like pets: "Petfinder.com Adopt a homeless pet".

Sometimes, many bumper stickers on one car make a strong philosophical statement of belief: "We all live downstream--David Suzuki", "Green party", "NY Farms Buy locally grown 1-888NYFARMS www.nyfarms", "Question Reality", "Have you hugged a farmer today?", (Deadhead sticker), "Donna the Buffalo", "Growing organic for the future".

And sometimes not so strong: "Herstory: the Greatest Story Never Told", "Support your right to arm bears", "Ithaca is ogres", "A hamburger stops a beating heart".

And sometimes you see the struggle to make sense of the world played out on the back of a car: "Ageism - will catch up with you", "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries", "Choice: Brought to you by Planned Parenthood", "Drive carefully: 90% of all people are caused by accidents", "I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe", "what wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness", "Overpopulation: too much of a good thing", "Directionally dysfunctional", "Having abandoned my search for Truth, I am now looking for a good fantasy", "Ithaca College", "Wells College".

And finally, on the side of the same car: "Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?"

One could probably find a deeper meeting to all these sayings, but this reporter would like to "Keep it Simple" and leave the final analysis up to the reader.

Interesting link: