COLOR COMMENTARY: Thanks to the state’s red ink, your car’s going to get a little more colorful.

Next year, the state will be dunning residents—oops, make that enhancing vehicular safety—by returning to its old-style blue and gold license plates. Sure, that’s a way for Albany to force another $129 million out of our collective pockets (they don’t call it the “Empire Gold” program for nothing), but at least the state colors will roll along again.

If you do object to the $25 per car that’ll cost you, though, there’s an online protest petition set up by the county clerk

at www.erie.gov

. It’s free. Until Albany figures out a way to tax petitions.

CIRCULAR REASONING: Noticed a story, the other day, that linked the ubiquitous presence of the plastics and coatings additive BPA, bisphenol a, with erectile dysfunction and other difficulties of the male reproductive system.

The study focused on Chinese workers exposed to high levels of the chemical. But with trace amounts of BPA detectable in 93 percent of Americans, that might explain the nightly news-hour deluge of ads involving twin bathtubs.

Hey, you don’t suppose the packaging for Cialis and Viagra contains . . . oh, never mind.

GOOD NEWS REPORTING: This evening, the Buffalo Newspaper Guild celebrates its 75th anniversary. It has a long record of journalistic service to this community, from its first contracts with the Buffalo Times in the 1930s to its commitment to deliver quality newspapers in this decade’s troubling economic times. And from this page, there can be only one strong opinion: Good job, Guild members. And congratulations.