I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me as I drove around this afternoon. I’m not a big fan of bumper stickers. I’ve never had one on my car, and I never intend to have one. But if you’re going to have a bumber sticker, it ought to at least be clever and make some sense. This bumper sticker said:

OK. I assume that “Smile oft” means “Smile often”, although why abbreviate it when there was plenty of room on the line for the truncated two letters. Perhaps they charged for the bumper sticker by the letter.

There are serious problems in the world. But don’t worry. All you have to do is smile often, speak gently and be kind. It is a little more complicated than “Don’t worry. Be happy.” But it is less complicated than living a healthy lifestyle. A recent study found that only 3% of American adults are doing what they should to avoid serious disease.

Specifically, the researchers were looking for Americans who, in addition to not smoking, eat five or more fruits or vegetables daily, engage in 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week, and who have “healthy” weight, meaning a body-mass index of 18.5 to 25.

They found the prevalence of the four healthy lifestyle characteristics (HLCs) to be as follows: Nonsmoking, 76 percent; healthy weight, 40.1 percent; consumption of five fruits and vegetables daily, 23 percent; and getting regular physical activity, 22.2 percent.

Imagine that on a bumber sticker:

I suppose both bumper stickers are equally effective.