Second Thoughts On A New AAVSO Logo

I had just made a quick pit stop along the New York throughway and was back on the road again heading east towards Boston. The weather was pretty decent for March, and I had been consistently pushing or exceeding 80 mph most of the way through New York taking advantage of the partly sunny, dry day.

Keenly aware that I was doing 15 mph over the speed limit most of the time, my eyes were peeled and on the lookout for state police hiding in the median or on the side of the highway far down the road ahead. I had dodged being detected a few times already by noticing ‘the boys’ hiding in strategic positions, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting speeders who would be filling the coffers of the state with their traffic fines this day, and I’d felt pretty smug each time I saw the flashing lights in my rear view mirror as some driver lacking my keen instincts was pulled to the side of the road in highway humiliation.

I was making great time, and it looked like I would be pulling into the parking lot at AAVSO headquarters about an hour earlier than I expected. That’s when I saw him.

Apparently, I hadn’t noticed the traffic behind me parting like the Red Sea as ‘Smoky’ raced to catch me from behind. He was now even with me in the left lane, looking right at me, or was it something else? He seemed to be looking behind me, like I had a broken rear window or something. Then he looked right at me, then behind me. I was already decelerating, expecting the flashing lights to come on at any minute when the strangest thing happened. He tipped his hat and took off down the road at what seemed to be 100 mph.

It wasn’t until I stopped for gas a few hundred miles later, and looked in my window as I filled up, that it dawned on me what had happened. There in my rear driver’s side window was my AAVSO decal. I have one in the passenger side window too. I display them with pride. I have to admit, though, I have been a proponent of a new logo for many years. My main objection being the current logo looks too stiff and old-fashioned, and too similar to the many sheriff’s department logos across this great country of ours. It doesn’t scream out “astronomy”. At first glance, it says “police”.

I think that AAVSO police decal in my window may have saved me a fine, points on my driving record, an increase in insurance premiums and a long string of disapproving ‘wife looks’ for the next month or so. Maybe it’s old-fashioned, but I kind of like that sheriff’s star logo now. I have a lot of driving to do this year, NEAIC in New York, Boston a few more times, the Texas and Nebraska Star Parties. Yea, those AAVSO decals are staying in my windows for the foreseeable future. Long live the AAVSO star.