Dime Brothers' crack investigative unit of one (and sometimes two if Paul would get off his duff) recently sought to answer a question few may know the answer to:

"What's the deal with all those oval stickers on the backs of cars with seemingly random letters on them?"

When I first saw them a couple of years ago I assumed they stood for countries. But then I started seeing weird combinations of letters that confused me. So after a quick Google search, here is what I've come up with:

Answerbag.com said they are country of origin stickers used primarily in Europe. A couple of sources state that the US has butchered the country thing since they now represent states and localities in some instances. I'm still thinking I see a lot of random letters on those things - maybe people have applied their own reason and logic to them to create oh-so-cool stickers that no one but a select few can understand.

So why do people want them exactly? Funny bumper stickers make people laugh and smile instead of honk and scream. Political ones are usually easily understood and at least let you know what the driver stands for. Oval stickers with random letters leave people confused... and angry!!! I'm raging mad because of them! Ooga ooga!

Unless of course the sticker is more clearly a country/nationality one. Then that's okay. I give you permission to proudly display the country you just visited or the one you or your ancestors hail from.