So I was on my way home, stopped at a light downtown.

 A car pulled up next to me. The windows were rolled down.

The vehicle was covered with messages, apparently sprayed on with some sort of  gunk that looked like cake frosting. One on the side of the car read, "Honk if cute!"

The car was full of people who looked to be in the 17-to-20 age range. A boy in the back seat spoke to me.

"Is that a Dinosaur?"

Assuming that he was referring to my bike and thinking he meant to say "Elephant," I told him it wasn't. (Though later I realized he might have been talking about my horn, which is, in fact, in the shape of a dinosaur head.)

Then it was my turn. "So...Honk if cute...does anyone actually do that?"

"Sometimes," said a girl in the front seat.

When the light turned green and we went on our way, it occurred to me that maybe I had missed the point.

Perhaps those kids, so accustomed to communicating in texting code, had actually intended that message to say "Honk if you think WE are cute."

They seemed nice enough. But I don't know that I would have been inclined to reach for my dinosaur.

Besides, it didn't say "Beep if cute!"

---

---