Austin is full of "KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD" bumper stickers, which seems like the sort of thing that would self-negate after it reaches critical mass, but there you go. One of my neighbors teaches college in Round Rock, a suburb of Austin (and where Dell is located, incidentally), and she sports a "Keep Round Rock Mildly Interesting" sticker.

My car has no bumper stickers on it, as I am officially neutral, being a legislative employee. My wife's car has a "I Don't Have To Like Bush To Love My Country" sticker on it, and it didn't occur to her for a long time (years, actually) that if you take it at a bit more than face value, it says, "I am a gay liberal man."

If self-righteous in-your face vegans tasted as good as sirloin, I'd be willing to remove the half notch.

Vegans in garlic, mmmm.

I once had a discussion with a vegan who said there was no reason for any human to eat meat. I asked him what the Inuit were going to live on. He said I was mean.

I have a real problem with articles that set up a dichotomy between "writers" and "bloggers."

And without any sense of irony. You're writing an essay for an online magazine. You're blogging. Dude. Head outta ass.

I asked him what the Inuit were going to live on. He said I was mean.

Yeah, it's mean to interject reality into the guy's world view....

Since I drive the most nondescript car on earth, I put on a bumper sticker to be able to find the poor beast.

I put a "stained-glass" butterfly decal in the rear passenger-side window. A lot of cars look like a blue Cavalier. I don't use bumper stickers because you can never get them off. It's too much committment. I've also always feared someone would get mad enough to trash my car or something. I have a Vanderbilt Alumna decal I keep meaning to put on the rear window, but I keep losing it. It took me a while to find one that said "Alumna" instead of "Alumni" or "Alum".

Militant vegans are delicious with barbecue sauce, but you have to tenderize them first. I've heard.

We have a couple militant vegans (well, he is, more than she) at the centre. She's made him promise to stop getting into it with people (me), and I told her I wouldn't unless he started it.

Later I pointed out he always started it, because he has VEGAN tattooed on his leg. We've gone out and eaten vegan with them (okay, but no lifestyle) and raw (you have got to be fucking kidding). This is all balanced out by the guy who brought in a whole pig. He's totally cool.

You went to Vanderbilt, zenkitty?

When I told my dad I was back on this diet (which I lost 85 pounds on about five years ago), he told me that he tried it himself a year or so ago, but decided it wasn't for him when he realized they had no red meat. Poultry and fish, yes, but no beef, lamb, or pork. He likes his steaks and burgers too much.

Ginger, I did. Graduated in anthropology/psychology in 1984.

...I can't type for shit.

English, about 10 years earlier.