Ithacaview.com

In some great European cities, the only way to really get to know the culture is to visit the cafés. In most American cities you get a feel for the local culture by turning to the op-eds column of the local fish wrapper. In Ithaca, you look at the backside of cars. Ithacans treat the rear of their cars like personal message boards. Glance around the parking lots of Wegmans, Ithaca Bakery, or Greenstar and you will find a huge variety of bumper stickers with messages from the mildly left to the absolutely way-out, orbiting another planet left. Leave it at that and it’s just a lefty political thing. But it goes far deeper.

Hand an Ithacan a bumper sticker, no matter how meaningless, and they will paste it on their car. They can’t help themselves. Shops have learned to take advantage of this auto-stick culture. Ithaca Bakery has a bumper sticker, so does Gimme! Coffee. Why? They’re just stores. So there must be something else and I may have figured it out after only living here one winter.

Road salt.

The damn stuff eats everything except bumper stickers. If you cover the back of your car with stickers, your car won’t dissolve as quickly. And when it does finally succumb, the stickers will hold together the rusty bits.

Brilliant!