En Passant: Plate Again, Sam

You notice the custom license-plates too, don’t you? Or am I the only person not looking far enough ahead in traffic? I still remember the white Corvette I saw, back around ‘74, with a tag reading SNOOOZ. Another one, years later (same guy/gal?) read simply, ZZZZZZ. On a van, a few years ago: CRVANGO. No, that’s not a specialty drink, I think (equal parts mango and cravat… leaned too close to the blender?); of course it has to be “See Our Van Go!”… although perhaps the driver did also own a Dutch Impressionist painting, and was bragging about it?   

For years I’ve offhandedly considered getting one myself – custom license plate, I mean; could never quite afford a Vincent. Dad bragged of plans to get one that would simply spell out our last name in big, bold, upper-case letters. He never did, but we wouldn’t have been surprised to see it on his back end.   

Back in the very late eighties and early nineties, I drove a bright red Ford Festiva, …and I really wanted to get a tag saying NOT2RED… since I’d never owned a red car before.   

A later car for me was a horrid white Ford station wagon (very briefly, Allahu akbar); with that one I longed for an honest plate in German: S-GEHT. For you non-students of German, that’s a play on words, meaning: a) “Aaah, I’m doing okay, I guess”, and b) “Well, at least it’s still moving!”… both of which were quite true. Choice two was a much lamer German pun, ICH-WEIS.   

Most recently, I've been interested in getting tags reading MT2MB, though I couldn't justify the expense and (especially) the vanity... so I dubbed this blog that same name instead – and now even fewer people see that than would have seen it on my car! 

When my daughter’s mom bought her a car last year (she’d squashed the one I’d given her; tale for another day, though), I suggested she get a tag reading THX-MOM. Daughter’s response: NO-DAD.   

And seen on the commute this morning: WAT-EVR.