I imagine these are much more “mainstream” by now, but when my husband first moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles, he called me mentioning how there must be some kind of festival or something coming up, because so many of the bars and restaurants had these rainbow flags up… I told him it was a gay thing, and it took another several months before he finally believed me.
The similar black-and-blue flag is probably still a bit more underground, and the bumper sticker with the yellow equal sign on a purple background as well.
Here on Long Island we have “The End” stickers which refer to Montauk, the last town on the east end of the island (south fork).
I suspect it’s nationally syndicated but we have a radio show out here that gives people “W.O.W.” stickers for their cars which gives other driver cart blanche to show them boobies on Wednesdays. (Whip it Out Wednesdays).
People around here keep putting up Wellstone! bumper stickers, even though he’s been dead for quite a bit, now. It is a political commentary, along with WWWD?
A few years ago some quasi-municipal organization in Austin thought it would be “hip” and “with it” to adopt the slogan, “Keep Austin Weird”, to be affixed to bumper stickers all across town. Not so strange in itself, but surrounding communities have responded with their own bumper stickers such as “Keep Georgetown Normal” and “Keep Round Rock Mildly Unusual”.
I think the funniest incident of something like this was confusion over something that wasn’t quite a decoration - a Frost Heaves sign. The curious person from far away knew that Robert Frost was from the area, and asked “I know that as local poets go Robert Frost is a big deal around here, but what does that sign mean? It can’t mean they commemorated somewhere where he threw up!”
We then explained that it has nothing to do with Robert Frost, but frost. We thought it was neat he was from a place where they don’t occur.
Back in the late sixties it was common to see bumper stickers in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County saying, “There is no life east of Sepulveda”. Sepulveda Boulevard is the big north-south avenue separating the “beach” section of Manhattan Beach from the terribly unhip inland areas.
Later these were amended to read, “There is no life east of Sepulveda…but there is parking.”
Any visitor to Delhi will notice that nearly every car in the area has a cheesy yellow sticker on the back windshield declaring “It’s Food’n’Fun Village.” Food’n’Fun Village is a pretty low rent Indian amusement park. This sticker is everywhere. It is instantly recognizable.
My beloved uncle took a sticker back to America with him and stuck it on his car. There is no doubt that he’s puzzled and confused no end of Indian drivers.
About fifteen or so years ago, the government here instituted a “Gold Card” accreditation scheme for tradesmen. There were stickers they had on their work vehicles that said “MY GOLD CARD IS YOUR GUARANTEE”. The more beat up the vehicle was, the more likely some letters had been scratched out to make it say “MY OLD CAR IS YOUR GUARANTEE”.
There’s a record store (do they still call them that?) in Louisville KY called “ear Xtacy”. They sell t-shirts and bumper stickers with “ear Xtacy” on them. Several years ago, it was sort of a fad to buy a bumper sticker, cut it up, and mix the letters up. Not that anyone knows what “ear Xtacy” means anyway unless they’re from Louisville.
A number of people in southern Alberta sport (pun intended :D) Calgary Stampeders logo stickers on their cars and trucks. The Stampeders’ logo looks like a galloping horse–in fact, very much like the horse used as the Ford Mustang. See an example of the Stampeders’ logo here. This has led various visitors to wonder why Chryslers, Chevys, Toyotas, and so on all have the Ford Mustang logo stuck on them.
The mascot used to be the Plainsmen. Not sure if this has totally gone away or is just not as exciting as a tiger and an eagle. Either way, Alabama seems to be the home of multiple mascot confusion (see University of Alabama: Crimson Tide and Elephants).
Once in a while I’ll see a bumper sticker around here with a caption of, “My Mom Is Cooler Than Yours - French Island”. Also on the sticker is a freezer with an arm sticking out.
The story behind it is a guy living on French Island (basically LaCrosse, WI) stuffed his mother in a freezer after she died of natural causes. He said he did this because he was afraid he would be blamed for her death and to continue to collect her social security checks. He got away with it for four and a half years.
“Native” bumper sticker in Colorado.
This is slightly off topic, but I remember being very confused about a big sign in New Hampshire that said “Say no to wild and scenic rivers.” I mean, who wouldn’t want wild and scenic rivers? Later I learned that it had something to do with property rights vs. conservation or some such dispute.
I moved to Minnesota from California about fifteen years ago. Not a big sports fan.
One day on my way to work (this was in December, and it was below freezing outside), there was a traffic jam. News reports said that it was caused by a man on an overpass, naked except for a green stocking cap.
Wild and Scenic is a federal designation on a river that prohibits certain types of development. It’s similar to the strong local objection to turning the WMNF into a National Park; more government controls by people “from away” aren’t looked upon kindly.
