Lifestyle

L.A.'s gone all in on hyper-specific bumper stickers — the weirder the better

Published

11 months ago

February 17, 2025

L.A.'s gone all in on hyper-specific bumper stickers — the weirder the better

Jeanne Vaccaro, a scholar and curator from Kansas, always wanted to become a bumper sticker person. For years, she collected stickers from artists, musicians and bookstores, but she kept them away from her vehicle, afraid that they’d damage the paint.

“It’s like a tattoo,” Vaccaro told me in Echo Park this past December. “Your mom tells you not to. It’ll, quote, ruin my car, unquote.”

But when she saw a scratch on her newly-purchased silver 2020 Subaru Impreza, she decided to cover the blemish with a sticker that said “All I want for my Bat Mitzvah is a Free Palestine,” the last two words large and bubbly, and filled with green and red to emphasize its political message.

It opened the floodgates. Now she has more than 25 stickers on the rear. There’s so many, they wrap around the sides, blasting colorful messages above the tires.

Jeanne Vaccaro.

(Renée Reizman)

“Next came, ‘HONK IF YOU LOVE RELATIONAL AESTHETICS,’” said Vaccaro, who was dressed in a Betty Boop T-shirt and leopard print jeans the day we met. She gestured to a simple, black-and-white sticker in sans-serif font that reads “I’D RATHER BE CRYING TO ENYA.”

The collection has since become quite varied. It includes a red-and-white bumper sticker that declares “I’d rather be withholding my labor,” which was designed by a poetry small press called Spiral Editions. (It’s technically a replacement; the first one was stolen from her car.) Her favorite is “Keep Honking! I’m thinking about the incomparable pool scene from Paul Verhoeven’s underappreciated 1995 erotic drama ‘Showgirls,’” a black sticker with white text that features lead actress Elizabeth Berkley’s lean profile.

“But I just have so many more that I can’t fit,” she said.

In August, Vaccaro took a sabbatical from the University of Kansas to curate the exhibition “Scientia Sexualis” at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In the brief time she spent in the area’s Arts District, her vehicle became a local celebrity.

“I’ve had a lot of people send me photos from Instagram,” she said. “Friends of theirs saw my car, and people know that it’s me. I think that’s so special.”

Though some of her stickers are political, Vaccaro doesn’t believe her car ruffles any feathers.

“I have not experienced any road rage or anger, and I’ve driven across the country many times,” Vaccaro said. Instead, she notices people through her rearview mirror, smiling. “It makes me happy that my car is bringing joy to the world.”

It’s hard to drive anywhere in L.A. right now without seeing an irreverent bumper sticker. In my own neighborhood of Echo Park, there’s “My other car is a Spirit Halloween,” which incorporates the brand’s grim reaper mascot; “Let me merge, my dad is dead” on a contradictory glittery, bubblegum pink background; and “KEEP HONKING! I’m Sitting In My Car Crying To The Cranberries 1993 Hit Single, ‘LINGER’” in a smattering of different-sized fonts.

A pick up truck with a couple of bumper stickers on the back.

Mara Herbkersman and Emily Bielagus, co-founders of the lesbian bar, The Ruby Fruit, sell branded bumper stickers that read: “keep honking. i’m listening to THE INDIGO GIRLS” for $5 each online. (Chiara Alexa / For The Times)

Cars have been emblazoned with advertisements and political messages ever since they came on the market, but the first adhesive bumper sticker can be traced back to 1946, when Forest P. Gill combined two wartime inventions, sticky paper and fluorescent paint. The first message Gill used for his discovery is lost to time, but his invention had sticking power. Political organizers were enthusiastic early adopters, and in 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidential campaign became the first to embrace the art form. His supporters proclaimed “I LIKE IKE” on the back of their Cadillacs.

Bumper stickers quickly became a permanent fixture in popular culture. Over the last 80 years, Gill’s company would churn out millions of stickers for politicians and tourist traps. They often communicate personal ideology, ranging from a hippie’s transmission of peace and love to a veteran’s pride for his country. Or taste: In the 1970s, classical music die-hards in L.A. adorned their cars with the phrase “MAHLER GROOVES,” to show appreciation for the Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer and conductor Gustav Mahler. (Which the Los Angeles Philharmonic recreated this year to promote a Mahler-themed festival this winter.)

In 1991, a Supreme Court case, Cunningham vs. State, ruled that bumper stickers were protected under the 1st Amendment, which made cars one of the few places where people could widely, but semi-anonymously, make bold political statements.

In recent years, the creation of colorful, highly-specific bumper stickers have exploded, especially in the car culture capital of Los Angeles. At between $5 to $10 a pop, they’re an economical tool to communicate personal values. This new wave of stickers, however, is more concerned with cracking self-deprecating jokes or aligning with a niche fandom. There’s a bumper sticker for everybody. You can profess your love for John Cage, neon art or frogs. You can declare your other car is a poem, ask drivers not to stress out your dog or claim to be a silly goose.

“It used to be about expressing something universal,” says Claire Evans, an artist, writer and musician most known for being half of the synth-pop duo Yacht. “Now it seems to be a signal of one’s membership in a niche musical, artistic or internet subculture.”

Evans has been documenting bumper stickers in Los Angeles for years, and has built a reputation as a bumper sticker expert and connoisseur. In an attempt to innovate upon the artform, Evans even designed a suite of miniature stickers for phone cases.

Many of today’s amusing slogans play off classic formulas like “Keep honking, I’m [oblivious to the world because I’m listening to something obscure], or “Honk if you love [a quirky interest or interesting activity] or “I’d rather be [bleak statement confronting one’s mortality] or “My other ride is a [creative vehicle alternative].”

The familiar templates allow people to endlessly iterate upon the genre and invite a conversation on any topic. Creators start with a broad concept, then fine-tune every word within the sentence, dialing in the message until it’s personalized to their unique taste. Local businesses, like Silverlake lesbian bar The Ruby Fruit, have printed their own iterations to cater to their clientele. (Theirs, which sells for $5 online, reads: “keep honking, i’m listening to THE INDIGO GIRLS.”)

“You want to put a sticker on your car that’s so obscure that whoever finds it funny is destined to be your friend,” Evans said.

Perhaps no bumper sticker accomplishes what Evans describes better than, “Keep Honking! I’m Listening to Alice Coltrane’s 1971 Meteoric Sensation ‘Universal Consciousness.’” The yellow and black declaration designed by Echo Park-based artist Christopher DeLoach in 2020, arguably kicked off the current trend of esoteric car accessories.

DeLoach came up with the Coltrane sticker while working at Texino, a tech startup that sold luxury camper vans. The company asked him to make merchandise that would suit the vehicles, and he naturally gravitated towards bumper stickers. The design — simple Arial black text on a yellow background that changes size and position in different parts of the phrase — was inspired by a vintage pro-life bumper sticker a friend found from a small church in Mississippi.

The feedback DeLoach received on the bumper sticker, as he puts it, was: “No one is going to understand this.” So DeLoach decided to sell it through his social media under the moniker “thatscoolthankyou.” It took off in 2021 and he estimates that he has since sold at least 3,000 of the Coltrane stickers, and has given away thousands more for free.

Artist Christopher DeLoach in his studio in Echo Park.

When I met DeLoach at his garage studio in Echo Park, he was sitting behind a retro Steelcase desk in a gray diamond-patterned blazer and black, collared shirt. In front of him were a stack of pre-addressed manila envelopes full of stickers that would soon be shipped off to people around the U.S. Also on the desk was a framed photo of a young DeLoach, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., posing with New York City’s former mayor, the infamous Rudy Giuliani. In front of the portrait, a nameplate read “Christopher DeLoach. Bumper Sticker Magnate.”

Despite the humorous tone of his creations, DeLoach has a surprisingly dark explanation for his bumper stickers’ success.

“The grave reality is that, in America, we exist in the most propagandized civilization of all time,” DeLoach said. “Everywhere you look, there’s branding and advertising. It has the secondary or tertiary effect of causing people to then want to act out and propagandize themselves.”

Since the success of the Coltrane sticker, DeLoach has come up with more than 120 designs. They appeal to every type of fandom, from followers of mega stars like Taylor Swift to devotees of the shoegaze pioneers Cocteau Twins. His second-most popular sticker is another one I spot regularly in bar bathrooms: a spoof of the famous interfaith “Coexist” bumper sticker of the mid-aughts. In DeLoach’s version, the religious symbols spell out “Cointelpro,” which refers to a covert operation led by the FBI to undermine radical political organizations.

There’s seemingly a sticker for everybody. But if you can’t find what you’re looking for, it’s easy to design your own. When Catalina Elias, an engineer living in Wrightwood, Calif., couldn’t find any stickers dedicated to flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione, she hopped onto Canva and made one that says, “Go ahead, keep honkin! I’m listening to Chuck Mangione’s 1977 hit ‘Feels So Good.’ ”

Though they’ve never met, Elias’s phrasing was inspired by DeLoach’s Coltrane sticker, which she had seen on Instagram.

Elias ordered 75 stickers, hoping she’d sell them, but never got around to it. Instead, she started giving them away for free. One day, she was hosting a yard sale and playing the song on repeat. It caught a neighbor’s attention.

“Some guy rode by with a really cool bike, and we gave him a bumper sticker, and now he’s one of our best friends,” she said.

The stickers also helped psychotherapist Jack Lam build camaraderie. Like Vaccaro, Lam put their “Honk if you’re a silly goose” sticker on their Toyota Prius to hide a scratch, but it’s also sentimental. A friend gave them the sticker because they knew they loved waterfowl.

For Christmas, Lam bought stickers as gifts for their group of friends, choosing phrases that best fit everyone’s unique personality.

“It’s whimsical and cute,” Lam said. “Now we all have a sticker, which is kind of beautiful.”

In a city that frequently isolates people into their car-shaped boxes, Evans believes that spying a relatable sticker can remind people of their shared humanity.

A person throws bumper stickers toward the camera.

“Sometimes this hyper specific bumper sticker is a way of reaching across the highway and making a connection with another person.”

Do you have a favorite bumper sticker? Share it here.

Lifestyle

Doctors says ‘The Pitt’ reflects the gritty realities of medicine today

Published

6 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Doctors says ‘The Pitt’ reflects the gritty realities of medicine today

From left: Noah Wyle plays Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the senior attending physician, and Fiona Dourif plays Dr. Cassie McKay, a third-year resident, in a fictional Pittsburgh emergency department in the HBO Max series The Pitt.

Warrick Page/HBO Max

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Warrick Page/HBO Max

The first five minutes of the new season of The Pitt instantly capture the state of medicine in the mid-2020s: a hectic emergency department waiting room; a sign warning that aggressive behavior will not be tolerated; a memorial plaque for victims of a mass shooting; and a patient with large Ziploc bags filled to the brink with various supplements and homeopathic remedies.

Scenes from the new installment feel almost too recognizable to many doctors.

The return of the critically acclaimed medical drama streaming on HBO Max offers viewers a surprisingly realistic view of how doctors practice medicine in an age of political division, institutional mistrust and the corporatization of health care.

Each season covers one day in the kinetic, understaffed emergency department of a fictional Pittsburgh hospital, with each episode spanning a single hour of a 15-hour shift. That means there’s no time for romantic plots or far-fetched storylines that typically dominate medical dramas.

Instead, the fast-paced show takes viewers into the real world of the ER, complete with a firehose of medical jargon and the day-to-day struggles of those on the frontlines of the American health care system. It’s a microcosm of medicine — and of a fragmented United States.

Noah Wyle plays Dr. Michael "Robby" Rabinovitch in The Pitt.

Many doctors and health professionals praised season one of the series, and ER docs even invited the show’s star Noah Wyle to their annual conference in September.

So what do doctors think of the new season? As a medical student myself, I appreciated the dig at the “July effect” — the long-held belief that the quality of care decreases in July when newbie doctors start residency — rebranded “first week in July syndrome” by one of the characters.

That insider wink sets the tone for a season that Dr. Alok Patel, a pediatrician at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, says is on point. Patel, who co-hosts the show’s companion podcast, watched the first nine episodes of the new installment and spoke to NPR about his first impressions.

To me, as a medical student, the first few scenes of the new season are pretty striking, and they resemble what modern-day emergency medicine looks and sounds like. From your point of view, how accurate is it?

I’ll say off the bat, when it comes to capturing the full essence of practicing health care — the highs, the lows and the frustrations — The Pitt is by far the most medically accurate show that I think has ever been created. And I’m not the only one to share that opinion. I hear that a lot from my colleagues.

OK, but is every shift really that chaotic?

I mean, obviously, it’s television. And I know a lot of ER doctors who watch the show and are like, “Hey, it’s really good, but not every shift is that crazy.” I’m like, “Come on, relax. It’s TV. You’ve got to take a little bit of liberties.”

As in its last season, The Pitt sheds light on the real — sometimes boring — bureaucratic burdens doctors deal with that often get in the way of good medicine. How does that resonate with real doctors?

There are so many topics that affect patient care that are not glorified. And so The Pitt did this really artful job of inserting these topics with the right characters and the right relatable scenarios. I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s a pretty relatable issue in season two with medical bills.

Right. Insurance seems to take center stage at times this season — almost as a character itself — which seems apt for this moment when many Americans are facing a sharp rise in costs. But these mundane — yet heartbreaking — moments don’t usually make their way into medical dramas, right?

I guarantee when people see this, they’re going to nod their head because they know someone who has been affected by a huge hospital bill.

If you’re going to tell a story about an emergency department that is being led by these compassionate health care workers doing everything they can for patients, you’ve got to make sure you insert all of health care into it.

As the characters juggle multiple patients each hour, a familiar motif returns: medical providers grappling with some heavy burdens outside of work.

Yeah, the reality is that if you’re working a busy shift and you have things happening in your personal life, the line between personal life and professional life gets blurred and people have moments.

The Pitt highlights that and it shows that doctors are real people. Nurses are actual human beings. And sometimes things happen, and it spills out into the workplace. It’s time we take a step back and not only recognize it, but also appreciate what people are dealing with.

2025 was another tough year for doctors. Many had to continue to battle misinformation while simultaneously practicing medicine. How does medical misinformation fit into season two?

I wouldn’t say it’s just mistrust of medicine. I mean that theme definitely shows up in The Pitt, but people are also just confused. They don’t know where to get their information from. They don’t know who to trust. They don’t know what the right decision is.

There’s one specific scene in season two that, again, no spoilers here, but involves somebody getting their information from social media. And that again is a very real theme.

In recent years, physical and verbal abuse of healthcare workers has risen, fueling mental health struggles among providers. The Pitt was praised for diving into this reality. Does it return this season?

The new season of The Pitt still has some of that tension between patients and health care professionals — and sometimes it’s completely projected or misdirected. People are frustrated, they get pissed off when they can’t see a doctor in time and they may act out.

The characters who get physically attacked in The Pitt just brush it off. That whole concept of having to suppress this aggression and then the frustration that there’s not enough protection for health care workers, that’s a very real issue.

A new attending physician, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, joins the cast this season. Sepideh Moafi plays her, and she works closely with the veteran attending physician, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle. What are your — and Robby’s — first impressions of her?

Right off the bat in the first episode, people get to meet this brilliant firecracker. Dr. Al-Hashimi, versus Dr. Robby, almost represents two generations of attending physicians. They’re almost on two sides of this coin, and there’s a little bit of clashing.

Sepideh Moafi, fourth from left, as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, the new attending physician, huddles with her team around a patient in a fictional Pittsburgh teaching hospital in the HBO Max series The Pitt.

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Part of that clash is her clear-eyed take on artificial intelligence and its role in medicine. And she thinks AI can help doctors document what’s happening with patients — also called charting — right?

Yep, Dr. Al-Hashimi is an advocate for AI tools in the ER because, I swear to God, they make health care workers’ lives more efficient. They make things such as charting faster, which is a theme that shows up in season two.

But then Dr. Robby gives a very interesting rebuttal to the widespread use of AI. The worry is that if we put AI tools everywhere, then all of a sudden, the financial arm of health care would say, “Cool, now you can double how many patients you see. We will not give you any more resources, but with these AI tools, you can generate more money for the system.”

The new installment also continues to touch on the growing corporatization of medicine. In season one we saw how Dr. Robby and his staff were being pushed to see more patients.

Yes, it really helps the audience understand the kind of stressors that people are dealing with while they’re just trying to take care of patients.

In the first season, when Dr. Robby kind of had that back and forth with the hospital administrator, doctors were immediately won over because that is such a big point of frustration — such a massive barrier.

There are so many more themes explored this season. What else should viewers look forward to?

I’m really excited for viewers to dive into the character development. It’s so reflective of how it really goes in residency. So much happens between your first year and second year of residency — not only in terms of your medical skill, but also in terms of your development as a person.

I think what’s also really fascinating is that The Pitt has life lessons buried in every episode. Sometimes you catch it immediately, sometimes it’s at the end, sometimes you catch it when you watch it again.

But it represents so much of humanity because humanity doesn’t get put on hold when you get sick — you just go to the hospital with your full self. And so every episode — every patient scenario — there is a lesson to learn.

Michal Ruprecht is a Stanford Global Health Media Fellow and a fourth-year medical student.

Lifestyle

In Beauty, Private Equity Is Hot Again

Published

7 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

As strategic firms slow down their shopping sprees and venture capital dollars dry up, PE firms’ reputation for asset stripping is a thing of the past. Founders are now often hoping for private equity buyouts, but want to be sure there can be a true partnership.

Lifestyle

10 books we’re looking forward to in early 2026

Published

18 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

10 books we’re looking forward to in early 2026

Two fiction books about good friends coming from different circumstances. Two biographies of people whose influence on American culture is, arguably, still underrated. One Liza Minnelli memoir. These are just a handful of books coming out in the first few months of 2026 that we’ve got our eye on.

Fiction

Autobiography of Cotton, by Cristina Rivera Garza, Feb. 3

Garza, who won a Pulitzer in 2024 for memoir/autobiography, actually first published Autobiography of Cotton back in 2020, but it’s only now getting an English translation. The book blends fiction with the author’s own familial history to tell the story of cotton cultivation along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Crux, by Gabriel Tallent, Jan. 20

Tallent’s last novel, My Absolute Darling, was a harrowing coming of age story about a teenage girl surviving her abusive survivalist father. But it did find pockets of beauty in the outdoors. Tallent’s follow up looks to be similarly awestruck by nature. It’s about two young friends, separated by class and opportunity, but bound together by a love of rock climbing.

Half His Age, by Jennette McCurdy, Jan. 20

The former iCarly actress’ bracing and brutally honest memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, was a huge hit. It spent weeks on bestseller’s lists, and is being adapted into a series for Apple TV+. Now McCurdy’s set to come out with her fiction debut, about a teenage girl who falls for her high school creative writing teacher.

Kin, by Tayari Jones, Feb. 24

Similarly to Crux, Kin also follows two friends across the years as options and opportunities pull them apart. The friends at the center of this book are two women who grew up without moms. Jones’ last novel, 2018’s An American Marriage, was a huge hit with critics.

Seasons of Glass & Iron, by Amal El-Mohtar

Seasons of Glass & Iron: Stories, by Amal El-Mohtar, March 24

El-Mohtar is an acclaimed science-fiction writer, and this book is a collection of previously published short stories and poetry. Many of the works here have been honored by the big science-fiction/fantasy awards, including the titular story, which is a feminist re-telling of two fairy tales.

Nonfiction

A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides, by Gisèle Pelicot, Feb. 17

Pelicot’s story of rape and sexual assault – and her decision to wave anonymity in the trial – turned her into a galvanizing figure for women across the world. Her writing her own story of everything that happened is also a call to action for others to do the same.

Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane, by Andy Beta, March 3

For decades, the life and work of Alice Coltrane has lived in the shadow of her husband, John Coltrane. This deeply researched biography hopes to properly contextualize her as one of the most visionary and influential musicians of her time.

Football, by Chuck Klosterman, Jan. 20

One of our great essaysists and (over?) thinkers turns his sights onto one of the last bits of monoculture we’ve got. But in one of the pieces in this collection, Klosterman wonders, how long until football is no longer the summation of American culture? But until that time comes, there’s plenty to dig into from gambling to debates over the true goat.

Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by Liza Minnelli, with Michael Feinstein, March 20

Minnelli told People that previous attempts at telling her story “didn’t get it right,” so she’s doing it herself. This new memoir promises to get into her childhood, her marriages, and her struggles with substance abuse.

Tom Paine’s War: The Words that Rallied a Nation and the Founder of Our Time, by Jack Kelly, Jan. 6

If you haven’t heard, it’s a big birthday year for America. And it’s a birthday that might not have happened if not for the words of Thomas Paine. This new book from historian Jack Kelly makes the argument that Paine’s words are just as important and relevant to us today.