The "H" is missing from the front of my Honda. This isn't a new development -- it has been missing for quite a while, and every now and then I'll notice its absence. Those two empty little holes at the front edge of the hood remind me that my car had something taken from it.

Where did it go? I always assumed it was just the whim of some teenage punk. Was it for his collection? Do kids show off shoeboxes full of their latest prizes -- Honda, Acura, Toyota, ... maybe even Oldsmobile? "Hey, dude," he probably brags to his friends, "check out the KIA logo I ripped off a van last night!"

I really would like to replace it. Maybe there's a black market in these things, and kids are recruited to harvest them from parked cars in the dead of night. And on certain streets, near certain alleys, there are shadowy characters like that trenchcoat-wearing character on Sesame Street who skulk in shadows, saying "Psst. Wanna buy an H?"

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