Monday, July 31, 2006

In defense of vanity

Blogger par excellence Happy in Bag posted a pretty good rant last week about vanity license plates and just wtf is the deal with that.

There seems to be a pretty solid consensus in the comments that the whole idea of vanity plates is lame. But just to keep the conversation going, I'll offer up this defense of vanity plates...

Why must we all be treated as numbers? Why not try to maintain a small part of our personal identity in this workaday world. Isn't it enough that we are assigned SocSec numbers by the govt, a cube number by the corporation, and a house number by the USPS? Now we have to have a number on our personal transportation as well?

Oh how I long for those romantic days of yore when we could ride to work at the office on a trusty steed named Trigger, instead of a nag named THX-1182.

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9 comments:

  1. I think the licensing bureaus should adopt the "reasonable person" standard on personalized plates.

    If a "reasonable person" can't decipher your fucking vanity plate at first glance, REJECTED.

    I considered getting one. It was GALAHD. Care to decipher?

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  2. So, are you, in fact, U KAN 2? If not, then what?

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  3. My license plate reads 3 A.M. (not really).

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  4. Steve, your college roommate, almost received a vanity plate from his supermodel wife (me) that read "SLMLRD". This, of course, would be a tribute to his responsibility-laden role as rental property owner. Steve managed to talk me out of the purchase because he said he liked not having key marks on the side of his car door. Killjoy ...

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  5. Mel,

    I love that idea. I'm wracking my brain to try to remember the vanity Steve had on his bitchin' Monte Carlo in college. It was something like really cheesy. See if you can pry the info from him.

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  6. Lano,

    It was "LATER." I can't believe I forgot that little nugget of Steve trivia. And do you know whenever we see a Monte Carlo, he gets all sappy about it? If I wasn't watching, I'd swear he'd weep like a woman. He must have had some good times in that Monte Carlo ...
    wait... how am I supposed to feel about that?

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  7. Mel,
    That's right. "LATER" It came to me as we were driving around tonight courtesy of my Supermodel Wife.

    Here's a little anecdote: I went with Steve to Neewollah one year in Indy. We took the bitchin' Monte and on the way back to Manhattan the muffler fell off.

    We re-attached it with a wire cloths hanger from the trunk. I don't know if he ever fixed it properly after that.

    Ah, good times.

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  8. Leave it to Steve to have the right tool at the right time. What was he doing with a coat hanger in his trunk? Was he as immaculately pressed even in college as he is now? Criminy ...

    My vanity plate, if I had an outrageously expensive, pimped-out ride would be "WRTHIT" or "WSTNDGL". But Steve again, being the sack of fun that he is, pointed out the key mark on the car door issue.
    Come and visit. Remind him what it is like to truly live. Bring the wife. Have her help you help him.
    Please?

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  9. Hello EMAW!

    I have just posted a comment to Happy in Bag blog asking for sharing her plate photo with my collection of Outstanding Licence Plates at http://www.pl8s.org. So pretty much asking you the same, would you mind?
    I mean U KAN 2 plate photo.

    Cheers,
    Andrei, pl8s.org@gmail.com

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