Couldn't help but noticing these days that the validation stickers on gas pumps are no longer spattered with Nikki's twenty year old mug.  I wonder if it was the creative artwork or the political pressure that affected this uncelebrated change.  Anyone on the inside of this one?

I know a guy that is an NRA instructor and was talking to a higher-up supervisor at the Dept of Ag about a licensing issue.  The chit chat was friendly and while waiting for the computer to catch up, the conversation turned to the new Nikki stickers.  The instructor mentioned to the supervisor that the new "game" was to use a sharpie to draw mustaches, ears and the like on the stickers and post the drawing to the internet.  It was shortly after that the Nikki stickers were replaced with the current sticker.  I have no idea if Nikki was aware of the game until that time, but it seems likely that the supervisor shared his new-found knowledge with his boss and the Nikki stickers went away.

Old news-

TALLAHASSEE — Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s office would have to replace stickers that display her smiling face on gas pumps by mid-September under a House budget proposal.

The directive is tied to the House’s proposed $91.37 billion budget that was released last week. The budget also would require placing in reserves more than $19.7 million for other programs until plans are offered to replace the stickers, a process that Fried’s spokesman said is already underway.

The issue, which isn’t in the Senate’s budget outline, comes after a decision last year by the Republican-dominated Legislature to limit what could be shown on gas-pump inspection stickers posted by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.


Fried is the only Democrat elected statewide, and stickers placed on pumps after she took office last year included a picture of her.

The House’s new budget proposal includes a provision that says a portion of money for the department would be put in “reserve until the department submits a plan to the Legislative Budget Commission for removing stickers affixed by the department to petroleum fuel tanks.”

Fred Piccolo, a spokesman for House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, said the House is taking the steps because Fried didn’t carry out the Legislature’s directive last year to replace the stickers that included her picture.

“The Legislature made it clear last session that the placing of a likeness of oneself on official inspection materials was unseemly, self-promoting and contrary to taxpayer interests,” Piccolo said in an email. “Commissioner (Fried) chose to ignore that directive. The House in 2020 is reiterating last year’s requirement and exercising our constitutional prerogative to decide what is and is not funded.”

I miss defacing those stickers. It was the highlight of every morning. Heck I was even peeling them off and putting them on trash cans, fire extinguishers, squeegee buckets, condom machines, etc.

Same here!

I would forget my sharpie so I took a trip down memory lane and decided to try to find some of those old Mr. Yuck warning stickers (Green sick looking for to mark poisonous items) but alas, couldn't find any. I wanted to keep a roll in my truck, easier than trying to find that damn sharpie.

Too bad, only if she would sallow.

Fixed it for you.