I still don't do ribbon campaigns.

So on one of the various forums that I frequent, people are already talking about what a great wonderful thing "pagan awareness days" are and reminding people to wear their purple ribbons...now, this occurs in September.

Ribbon campaigns in general just grate on my nerves. When I was in elementary school, I remember having red ribbon week. This was for drug awareness. Somewhere along the line, the red ribbon also started to symbolize AIDS awareness. Then there's the "support our troops" yellow ribbon. And the breast cancer pink ribbon...

According to this site http://www.gargaro.com/ribbons.html green ribbons are for leukemia, free market internet, organ donors, truck driver abuse (truck driver abuse???), alien free speech, liberty round table, freedom for Irish political prisoners, find missing children, addiction to genealogy, hemp for all, and who knows what else...

Back when there were only a few ribbon campaigns, you might see someone with a ribbon and could take a reasonable guess as to what it meant. Today, I could wear a green ribbon in effort to raise awareness for organ donors...but someone else light see it and thank that I'm addicted to genealogy or protesting truck driver abuse. At this point, why not just make up little badges that say "become an organ donor" or "fight truck driver abuse"...it would be a lot less ambiguous, and people wouldn't end up inadvertently supporting the stop hating Leonardo DiCaprio movement or the fight to ban the blink command.

That aside, what really bugs me about this one is that no one seems to know what it's actually standing for. They're calling it "pagan awareness"...to let the world know that there are pagans out there. But there have been a lot of people who have promoted it as some sort of secret code (wear a purple ribbon so we know who the other pagans are without having to ask and can go around feeling smug and superior!), promoting religious freedom (okay, then why isn't it called "religious freedom awareness day"?) and well, "pagan awareness day"- tell everyone you're a pagan. Either that, or that you support draconic equality. Take your pick.

(Seriously, these are all things that I found while googling for ribbon campaigns. I did not make any of them up. I'm sure osme of them are humorous, but they were there. )

Well, pardon me for following the law.

So coming up to the office this afternoon, there was a ticket check. I bought a ticket this morning when I came home from work. I had a backpack, coffee and a bag with a sandwich to juggle, so I had to maneuver things around and hold the coffee between my knees (It was iced coffee.)

So the MTA cop lady is standing there looking down at me as I fish for my ticket, which I usually put in my wallet, but apparently didn't this morning. I apologized for the holdup, said that I just had to figure out where it was and maybe twenty seconds later, found it in one of the side pockets of my backpack. The entire time I'm looking, she's got a rather evil grin on her face...I could just see the hamster wheel spinning "Yeah, I got one. I get to write a ticket!"

Then I pull my ticket out, and suddenly she's all glowering at me. Practically rips it out of my hand, asks if I know what date today is, and where I bought the ticket. Finally, she kinda grunts, says "Fine." rolls her eyes and shoves the ticket back at me.

What the hell???