"IS CALVIN PRAYING FOR YOU?":

“IS CALVIN PRAYING FOR YOU?”: Tom Johnson weighs in on those ubiquitous (and annoying) “Calvin peeing on a Chevy/Ford/Harley/Yamaha” stickers:

The irony here, as everyone knows, is that Watterson is Mormon, and therefore highly religious, and had nothing to do with these stickers (and wouldn’t allow his characters to be licensed for anything, stickers included.) Regardless, the stickers are now a regrettable part of our culture, and like anything so ubiquitous, comes to represent a sort of mentality of everyone – whether you’ve got the sticker on your car or not.

The big question is, what is it with rivalries like this? Could it be more inconsequential? Ooo, so you don’t like Chevy. What happens if your friend buys a Chevy? Can you still be friends with them, or have they gone over to the dark side? Or do you stay with them – because you’re a friend – to be there to help them up when they inevitably suffer the consequences of their bad decision? I can’t think of a better way to tell people that Americans have far too much free time on their hands than with a sticker that advertises your immense dislike of a particular manufacturer’s version of what is decidely a luxury item.

Exactly.