OK, here's my first try at starting a new thread. I noticed an older thread about license plates. Some years ago I ran across the license plate ML8ML8. I couldn't believe my eyes, because after following the car for about 5 miles I realized you could tell not only the make but the color of the car from the license plate!
Another one I saw in VA was an Isuzu pickup truck with the plate GSNDHT.
And for several years here in Colorado (until the ex took the car to another state) I had a car with OH FEX (though I admit I stole this one from a friend in VA).
Ted,
could you send me the explanations for the first and third ones, please? I got the middle one, but for the others IM2L8.
>>could you send me the explanations for the first and third ones, please? I got the middle one, but for the others IM2L8<<
Me too! (is this a boy thing?)
One of my favourites was in 1999 - a Volkswagen Beetle with the plate Y2K.
And one of my least favourite, from the carpark at work - a black VW Golf covertible with the plate PHW 00 R.
OH FEX sounds like a reverse allergy medication (which follows from GSNDHT I suppose).
Bridget, bear in mind that what we call a VW Beetle, Americans call a Rabbit.
Bingley
>Bridget, bear in mind that what we call a VW Beetle, Americans call a Rabbit.<
Bingley:
Actually a Rabbit (which is not made any more so far as I know) was an entirely different model from either the new or the old Beetle. you're on the right track though.
Ted
PS: You might ask Alice
>OH FEX sounds like a reverse allergy medication (which follows from GSNDHT I suppose). <
Not even close. But the answer IS in OED.
Whee. When I started this thread I was a stranger, now I'm a newbie!
Congratulations, TedNewbie!
MANY thanks for the inside info.
As I said, obviously I don't know fex!
!
>in the OED
many crude and wonderful things are in the OED (and some are also in my wwftd list), such as feck; why would you put a phonetic spelling of the plural of an Irish/Scot slang word on a Colorado license plate -- unless you were trying to pull a fast one on the DMV.... never mind.
A VW Golf is a Rabbit in the US. I think Beetles are universally Beetles.
Now on to Ted's three license plates: I confess, right here in public, that I couldn't work out any of them. Please put me out of my misery.
>Please put me out of my misery
ML8ML8 was seen on a white Rabbit. I apologize to people outside the USA. I had no idea that a Rabbit wasn't a Rabbit in other countries. Heck, for years' I've heard of Welsh rabbit. (that WAS it, wasn't it???)
The Isuzu with GSNDHT (gesungdheit!) may also have been a not-so-good choice. I should have known that others might say something different to a person who had just sneezed.
OH FEX on my license plate -- the Latin feces is the plural of fex.
(I guess I'm not very good at starting new threads ).
>>ML8ML8 was seen on a white Rabbit. I apologize to people outside the USA. I had no idea that a Rabbit wasn't a Rabbit in other countries.<<
Er--I think, rather than what country they're
from, whether they get this one might depend more on whether
they've seen Disney's Alice in Wonderland.
And, Dear--practice makes perfect! Hint, hint!
> ML8ML8 was seen on a white Rabbit. I apologize to people outside the USA. I had no idea that a Rabbit wasn't a Rabbit
in other countries. Heck, for years' I've heard of Welsh rabbit. (that WAS it, wasn't it???)
The Isuzu with GSNDHT (gesungdheit!) may also have been a not-so-good choice. I should have known that others
might say something different to a person who had just sneezed.
> OH FEX on my license plate -- the Latin feces is the plural of fex.
Don't feel bad, Ted. I knew that a VW rabbit was the US equivalent of a Golf! Also 'gesundheit' is used quite commonly in Europe - especially by the Germans (I wonder why?). And as for Feck (Fex)! Well, let's say that you'd hera that quite a bit around these parts.... and worse.
'nuff sed,
Rubrick
> I knew that a VW rabbit was the US equivalent of a Golf!
I don't know where you're coming from, but I've recently seen commercials for VW Golfs. (The one with the two guys who pick up a chair from a curb side and then drop it off again because it smells is a Golf commercial.) I've heard of the VW Rabbit, but never seem one, or any advertisements for it.
Perhaps this is something from the old Beetle era. In that case, I wasn't born yet.
> I don't know where you're coming from, but I've recently seen commercials for VW Golfs.
> Perhaps this is something from the old Beetle era. In that case, I wasn't born yet.
The Golf/Rabbit has been around for quite a long time but is still in production (Vorsprung durch technik - as they say). But as Marathon became Snickers over here I am sure that the Rabbit is becoming the Golf over there. Here it has never been called anything but the Golf.
as Marathon became Snickers over here
You-all now have gas stations named Snickers ??
Reckon they also sell the candy bar?
Amazing what you can find on the internet.
Rabbit is the name of the first generation, four cylinder hatchback Golf in the United States. The Golf was so named "Rabbit" by VW of America to prevent people from assuming that the name "Golf" pertained to the sport of golf (the name is actually German for Gulf and is supposed to be short for "Gulf Wind"). These first generation Golfs were produced from 1974 to '82 in Germany and 1978 to '84 in Westmoreland, PA. The "Rabbit" (now called "Citi Golf") and it's pickup truck cousin, the "Caddy" are still manufactured and sold in South Africa today! Although not the first car of it's size, the introduction of the Golf created a new class of car, the "Compact" and the introduction of the GTi in 1976 started the "Hot Hatch" craze that is still popular today!
>whether they get this one might depend more on whether
they've seen Disney's Alice in Wonderland
Alternatively they could have even read the book :)
The other VW name that springs to mind is the "Sharan" MPV that they brought out a few years ago. Apologies to all Sharons but there was a lot of comment at the time suggesting that they should have checked out how people react to a name. Sharon isn't exactly cool!
The Ford name that I noticed was the "Probe" - a friend who is a gynaecologist said that they really couldn't bring themselves to drive a car called a Probe (another name for an instrument called a speculum, used for example in cervical smears)
Must dash - too much work to do!
Has no-one on this list actually "read" Alice (as opposed to viewing the Disney version)? "I'm late, I'm late!" is the White rabbit's famous exclamation.
Though I live in far off Australia even I know that the VW Golf has other names in other countries and am aware of the name Rabbit in the USA.
"Gesundheit" is also a very common expression, even to the vast majority of people who don't speak or understand German.
I must admit, however, that the last number plate's meaning escapes me.
>Has no-one on this list actually "read" Alice (as opposed to viewing the Disney version)? "I'm late, I'm late!" is the White rabbit's famous exclamation
Thank you maeve1!. This plate was really too tough for me!.
Juan Maria.
2BR02B
not particularly tough, except in another sense...
2BR02B
not particularly tough, except in another sense...
Er--the only other sense I can make out of this would be
real estate advertising. I do know the old name(s) for 0.
Though I never heard the one with the n used very much.
Clarify, please?
2BR02B
Puts me it mind of DOBDOB.
>Clarify, please?
I meant another sense of the word 'tough', as in the sentiments of Hamlet's soliloquy are severe and uncompromising.
"To be is to do" -Sartre
"To do is to be" -Camus
"Do be do be do" -Sinatra
i'll go with sinatra for the philosophy
or whatever it is that helps at this late hour...
To be is to do" -Sartre
"To do is to be" -Camus
"Do be do be do" -Sinatra
One of my favourite sayings - so deep!
No, no, Jackie.
The
chocolate bar used to be called a Marathon but has for some reason become a Snickers, just as Treats seem to have been renamed M&Ms.
Bingley
I've still never really recovered from the name of Marathon bars being changed. It comes up a lot in thirty-something conversations.
Now I've hit forty I can't really bring myself to think about forty-something conversations.Jackie - I don't think we ever had petrol stations called "Marathon" - is that something to do with the name change?
Here's a little excerpt I found on the internet which shows the strength of feeling around the subject:
"m a r a t h o n v s s n i c k e r s
One thing we'll never forgive Americans for is robbing the children of these islands of their innocent faith in chocolate bars...."
http://www.modestproposals.com/modest/food/issue1no22.htmlMore recently my children are really quite militant about the name change of "Opal Fruits" to "Starburst". Interesting how we hate childhood certainties to change.
>>Do be do be do" -Sinatra
You got it again, Dudette! You are goo-od!
Actually, I thought I was clever in deciphering the ML8ML8 as being "To Emulate." I guess I'm just a wannabe.
>>Actually, I thought I was clever in deciphering the ML8ML8 as being "To Emulate." I guess I'm just a wannabe.
Nope, just way smarter than the average person in our
"dumbed-down" society!
>>". Interesting how we hate childhood certainties to change.
Very true, Jo. And that goes for a lot more than just foods. But since that was the topic, I will add that there is a lady here in the U. S. that sells over the internet brands of food/drink items that are no longer on the market.
Maybe I should try to find her--I would love to have Clove chewing gum again!
>I would love to have Clove chewing gum again!
that was a product that was not Well Thought Out -- who wants a chewing gum whose very name suggests sticking to your teeth and gums?
I do have fond memories of the clove tree in my garden, but that wasn't in childhood, only about seven or eight years ago. Then, alas, I had to move to another city.
Bingley
>the clove tree in my garden
My cloves tree was in the hallway
>>who wants a chewing gum whose very name suggests sticking to your teeth and gums?
Sounds like your arachibutyrophobia is sticking its head out again, Tsuwm. Clove gum smelled (and tasted, for about ten seconds) heavenly!
In reply to:
My cloves tree was in the hallway
Ted, is your wife's name Margaret, by any chance?
Bingley
>Ted, is your wife's name Margaret, by any chance?
Yes, and I have this very eerie feeling that we're going to have one of those "It's a very small world moments." Could this have something to do with say quilting????
No, I was just thinking we could ask her in the right circumstances, "Where's the nut, Meg?"
Just trying to spice things up a little.
Bingley
>>"Where's the nut, Meg?"
In the cabinet w/ the other spices,
he replied gingerly.
Could this be the first sighting on the board of a ginger tom?
Bingley
>No, I was just thinking we could ask her in the right circumstances, "Where's the nut, Meg?"
Now remember, Bingley, you started this, and I was mint to finish it. We sage types find this a savory prospect, of course, and we don't see it as a cinnamon the virtues. In fact, we bay at the moon even on chili nights to find the thyme to caper through wordplay. I got some of these from a list and parsley drew some from memory, and my friend Basil came up with a few. I had to pay him a celery, since he's out of a job. He was working in a bar and tried to cardamom and she pulled a large borage on him. But that's ok 'cause he was cumin out from oregano anyway.
I mustard stop this or someone will mace me! I get carawayed sometimes :)
Ted,
Haven't you peppered us enough? Anisette to stop.
How about, "To be (Oughtn't = ought not) to be."
cowboy--
UBMY-T welcome, neighbor.