Driving down the street the other day, I noticed the license plate on the car in front of me. You know the kind, a vanity plate that someone came up with.
C U L8RNow, this was a pretty easy one to figure out, but how many times have you gotten behind someone, and just couldn't figure out what they were trying to say? Have you seen funny ones? Lewd plates, even though they aren't supposed to be?
68N1 was the lewdest I ever saw someone get away with. 
Some years ago there was a French car around here with the plate, "BEZ-MOI." I'm sure the guy at the Department of Motor Vihicles read "BEZ" as only the imperitive form of "kiss," not its slang implication.
Many years ago I knew a man whith six children whose family name was Casebeer. I'm sure you can all figure out what his vanity plate said. (6-PACK, of course)
last year in california, a non vanity plate was recalled..
Like most states, CA has a formula for plates, # XXX ###, (a number, 3 letter, 3 numbers) the three letter combo is checked, and fuk, fuc are not permitted, nor some other words that could read wrong.. but some words like red, or top, or big are OK.
so one plate ended up being 2 BIG 469 and the guy who had it, didn't want to give it up..
A few weeks ago, we saw a vanity plate which read SLK DZN and couldn't figure out what it might mean. The closest we could come was "Silk dozen," but that doesn't make much sense...
A few weeks ago, we saw a vanity plate which read SLK DZN and couldn't figure out what it might mean.
Some folks around here use their initials on vanity plates. Something like "Sarah Louise Kline" and Diego Zeledon Noriega" for the above example, with no cutesy words intended.
some one i worked with named Seltzer, had two cars each with vanity plates; one was ALKA the other BROMO. neither made much sense unless you knew..
my handle "of troy" come from playing what would you have as a vanity plate on long car trips.. (most plates are limited to 7 or 8 letters or characters.)
a flaming guy, in pink, in a pink convertable had a plate,
IM RU2.
Dear of troy: I hadn't heard of BromoSeltzer in years. I think that is the one that used to be popular with Boston drunks for hangover. I might be confused, but I think that is the one that used to have acetanilid in it. It was very effective, but caused methemoglobinuria, which gave the drunks a very noticeably blue face. Acetanilide with change in molecular structure is safe, and is now in Anacin.
...a vanity plate which read SLK DZN and couldn't figure out what it might mean.
Select Dozen?
This is a yart, I think, but there is only one self-defining license plate known. ML*ML* tells you not only what kind of a car it's on, it tells you what color it is.
The one I liked my ex had: OH FEX. Colorado did not realize that fex was the plural of feces. Marti's plate said OH SHIT on it!
And Peggy has asked me to appy for URIAH for her new Grand Cherokee.
fex ... the plural of feces
Backwards, maybe? "Fex, feces" like "index, indices" or "appendix, appendices"?
(Why do these terms seem to come from publishing? A sly commment on the state of literature these days?}
Absolutely right. Failure to edit. What I meant to saw was "fex, the plural of which is feces."
S__T!
Was it a 12 cylinder jaguar? Slick Dozen?
Back in Louisville, I recall someone with a Jag that said "ASKGOD". Not many people had them in Louisville ten years ago - at least not in my neighborhood (jags or vanity plates). They're all over the place in northern va. One I've seen around here is "CGDINME." Seems a lot are religious.
A guy I used to work with had the plate "HUMMMM" (he used to be in a barbershop quartet). Another fellow is VAXWZD or something like that. Yet another co-worker is DRBOBS (play on the hacker magazine doctor dobbs).
I've seen one on the road that says "INTEL" but I don't know if that refers to a chipmaker or the gathering of information.
A fellow once told me of a cool one that you had to see in your rearview mirror to appreciate: 3M TA3
k
tsuwm, thank you for providing the link to that old thread! I had a blast reading it!
Rapunzel says:
we saw a vanity plate which read SLK DZN and couldn't figure out what it might mean.Was it on a sports car? Maybe
SLK DZN means Sleek Design!
In addition to vanity plates, some yachtclub nouveau riche used to put small naval signal flags on convertible driver's doors to boast they had a yacht. They didn't bother to find out what the flags meant, until one young lady had a visiting naval officer inform her that her three little flags meant "Permission granted to lay alongside."
owed much to its impeccable delivery by the late and much-lamented Sir Nigel Hawthorne.
I got a pleasant chuckle out of reading your delivery just now.
k
Max - just wondering if you meant that Derek Fowlds has joined Paul Eddington and Sir Nigel in the hereafter???
As far as I was aware Derek is still alive and well, appearing in the BBC series "Heartbeat.
I am not sure if the series would appeal much to those not brought up in a country with a tradition of a British-style Civil Service, but then again, bureaucratese is a pretty universal language, I guess
Dear Max You sure guess right!
I loved that series and watched it through all three times it aired on my various PBS stations. (Maine, NH, Mass)
If they showed it again I know I would howl all the way through Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister all over again. I particularly like the bit you quoted and now have it stored where I can get at it! Also loved the episode where Sir Humphrey maneuvered through the halls of power and ended up getting Paul Eddington the Prime Ministership!
Hilarious and true about politics the world over I dare say!
Thank you Max!
Funny, I was just thinking about starting a thread on this the other day... lucky I got to trawling, really!
My favourite is one that my dad pointed to me - and had to explain to me, since I was pretty young: HIHOAG
Any guesses as to its meaning? It's too much fun to give away immediately...
GO40AU
[PS: for those whose fonts may not make this clear, the 2nd character is a letter but the 4th character is a digit.]
HIHOAGHer Imperial Highness On A Goat?
Her Imperial Highness On A Goat
Close, but no cigar...
Hi Ho Silver - gotta love the Lone Ranger (think along these lines for Keiva's, too).
My brother got a number plate with RHFB after he was classified as one in the national u18s cricket tournament... Right Hand Fast Bowler, that is!
Someone I know was given this licence plate, when he earned his doctorate in hydrology:
DR H2O
Guys - you're dabbling in one of my favourite subjects!
Still haven't found one to beat TIHZ HO (though I must admit OH FEX comes darn close!)
See the discussion we had some time ago:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=11740And, now that I've learned how to put links into posts, the link mentioned in my previous post for THE definitive PL8 site is at:
http://www-chaos.umd.edu/misc/origplates.htmlstales
EDIT: OMG, I've YARTed a previously YARTed YART. Whoopsie!
EDIT: OMG, I've YARTed a previously YARTed YART. Whoopsie! The first step to recovery is admitting you have YARTed.
Today I saw the following on a vehicle belonging (I hope!) to a cop: ICUFFM
BTW, should one stand upwind from someone who's YARTing?