[Fredslist] Fw: license plates

[Fred Klein]

Below is another local newspaper article by my daughter in law Julie Klein. Enjoy!
-----Original Message-----
From: julie klein <julie2k at optonline.net>
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 12:28:11 
To:Fred Klein <fklein at kzrd.com>
Subject: license plates

Personalized License Plate Mania
 
By Julie A. Klein
 
 
 
            Is anyone else obsessed with personalized license plates?  I think I have a problem.  I can’t stop looking for them.  Luckily for me, they are everywhere.  Long Island is the perfect place to be obsessed.  Drive the length of a suburban block and you will surely spot one.  I even carry around a notebook in my bag at all times to be sure that I don’t miss a good vanity plate.  
 
            For an initial fee of $43.00 and an annual fee of $25.00, you too can create and maintain your personalized message for the rest of us to read and try to decipher.  The DMV found another way to earn some extra cash: not only can you personalize your plate, but you can “customize” it as well (initial fee: $68.00, annual fee $50.00).  Custom designs include sports teams, causes and organizations, counties and regions of New York, colleges, sororities and fraternities, military and veterans groups, emergency services and professions.  
 
            Personalized plate messages are just that: personal – created by, and for, the person who devises the plate.  But are they really personal?  The rest of the local community is given a quick look-see each time such an adorned tag goes by.  And, if you ask me, these plates should be called personalized, public plates: because they really are for the rest of us onlookers, aren’t they?
 
            These plates are ubiquitous: sometimes funny, sometimes obnoxious and usually entertaining.  Some are unavoidably in your face, like the giant, flashy yellow Hummer’s plate, INYOFACE.  Or the other Hummer I saw with the letters HUMINATR.  Another entertaining plate affixed to a big GMC SUV was CHACHING.  And have you seen the large black Mercedes sedan with the tag, LARGE, or the white Lexus sedan with NT2SHBBY on its front and back.  On a Jaguar recently, I saw JANSCAT.  Quite the opposite is the all too cute Mini Cooper with these two individual plates: MINI and KUL MINI.
 
            You can learn a little bit about the person on the road in front of you, or the person coming toward you.  Some helpful hints can be found on this Toyota’s tag, RCHTASTE, or on the BMW SUV with GOTJEZUS.  A person named JENNNIFA, most likely a true Long Islander, cleverly personalized her plate (I imagine that JENNIFER was already taken).  Some are inspiring and maybe even life-affirming, like GR82B50 or LUVLIFE.  While others list driver and even passenger credentials: 1MD 1ESQ.
 
            I had my own personalized plate in high school, when I first got my driver’s license.  It was a fairly new thing then and I was so excited to have my own car (a used Mustang with a standard shift and no air conditioning); but it was mine.  The plate was a play on my name with my birthday: JEWEL-2 (and it was gold and blue).  
 
            Mostly what I have been noticing these days are license plates that describe and sometimes boast about the kids that are along for the ride.  Have you seen GOT2BOYS, JST4GRLS or MY3SONS?  There have also been plates with a variety of XYXYXX combinations, which I am assuming is the chromosomal way of letting us know the male/female passenger ratio.  Some avoid the gender distinction altogether and just let you know the number of offspring they have, for example, 4KIDS.  And still others go further and inform you how wonderful they are, as in GR8GIRLS.  I have yet to see a plate that said 1ROTTNKD or 2BRATS.  
 
            Don’t forget about the plates that are impossible to debunk, like RYCHJALU.  I guess some really are personal, meant only for those “in the know.”  The rest of us just have to sit idle and guess.  There are also some strategic ones like XANAX1.  I am assuming this is an advertisement for the drug.  Either that or the driver is proud to be medicated.  I saw BESTWIFE recently, and wondered whether she was the best wife in the world, or the best of the wives that her husband has had.  Or perhaps, this is the wife’s own estimation.  
 
            I am disappointed when a car in front of me does not have a personalized plate.  It is a boring mix of letters and numbers and does not help pass the time at a lengthy stoplight.  I noticed that the DMV has steered away from the term “Vanity” Plate, and perhaps for good reason.  The connotation is somewhat negative; and who would suspect that purchasers of customized, personalized plates are vain anyway?   
 
            Probably the most meaningful plate was the one I saw in Glen Cove on a recent Saturday afternoon: RSPCTALL.  Now isn’t that a worthwhile message?  Worth even the extra $25 bucks a year if you ask me.
 
             
 
 
 
 

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