Sup?

...with the ribbons. I've noticed more and more ribbon bumper stickers affixed to cars in my neighborhood. Some of them I recognize - yellow to support the troops, red for AIDS awareness, and pink for breast cancer awareness, but I wasn't clear about the others. I've seen a lot of purple ribbons recently, as well as blue and green.

I did a little research, and hit the mother lode. There are now so many ribbons out there now I don't have a clue what people are actually supporting. For instance, blue can refer to Ending School Violence, Online Freedom of Speech, International No Diet Day, Teens Against Smoking, Pagan Girls, Child Abuse Prevention, Stop Hating Leonardo DiCaprio, or Save Pluto (to mention a few). The purple ribbon is the most predominant one around here, which can be to Support the Victims of 9/11, Pancreatic Cancer Research, Support Paula Jones, Artists Against Racism, Pro-Life Feminism, Anti-Animal Abuse, Chombos Chocolate Campaign, Support Anti-Gravity, Horse Aid, or Draconic Equality. To play it safe, I will assume all these people are severe feminist painter vegetarian abortionist anti-terrorist/racist pancreatic cancer victims who like eating candy bars while on horseback rides with Paula Jones. They can also fly.

My advice? Spell out whatever you're supporting to avoid the confusion. I think George Carlin said it best when he recommended leaving symbols to the symbol-minded.