When I moved back to the U.S., my very lovely parents gave me their old car, which used to be my car, before I sold it to them when I moved to France (my family thinks of cars like adopted children, which must never leave our family so long as we both shall live). They transferred the title into my name, and I inherited not only my sweet little Sentra, Simon, but also his very cute license plates: HWT 088.
I consider this is a great licence plate, not only because 8 is my favorite number, but also because it was very easy to remember, HWT obviously standing for Becky Hewitt, who was in first grade with me.
The tags had to be renewed in February, and I assumed I would just be getting a little "2010" sticker to put on the existing plates. But no! They sent me entirely new license plates (and sent them to the wrong address, ignoring the "Change of Address" form that I had filled in and submitted along with my check for the tag renewal), with a horrible, tragic new number:
341 BDC.
What's wrong with this tag? Let me count the things:
1) Nary an 8 to be seen!
2) The numbers come before the letters, which is Not As It Should Be in Minnesota.
3) Not only is the number odd, it's practically prime (divisible only by 11 and 31).
4) BDC isn't an obvious and easy-to-remember abbreviation for anything (although it's slightly better than "BDO", which is what I initially thought it said, and which clearly stands for Body Odor).
Reflections on France, the U.S., and everything in between.
About Me
Blogs I have known and loved
Latest Books Read
- My Life in France, Julia Child
- Murder in the Marais, Cara Black
- The Corrections, Jonathan Frazen
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver
- First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria, Eva Brown-Waite
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Hours, Michael Cunningham
- Bookends, Jane Green
- Shadows on the Grass, Isak Dinesen
- Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen
- Le petit Nicolas a des ennuis, Sempé-Goscinny
- Le petit Nicolas et les copains, Sempé-Goscinny
Latest Movies Seen
- Public Enemies
- Away We Go *
- Up
- Elegy
- The Hangover
- Pelham 123
- The Proposal *
- Last Chance Harvey
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Angels and Demons
- The Soloist
- Star Trek
4 comments:
I completely understand your distress, and for all the same reasons. My car is seven years old, and I think the rule is that we have to get new plates every seven years. I've got a 1/4 inch tall stack of tabs on the plates. I've actually considered buying vanity plates for myself and keeping my current beloved JRL 125. Obviously, 5 X 5 X 5 = 125, and I think that's quite elegant. And I simply can't give up Jesus Reads Lips.
3+4+1=8
That has to soften the blow, at least a little.
As for the BDC, BD screams Big Dog to me, but I have no idea what to do with the C besides Car.
Deb is the license plate queen, though. She (mother of my current XXM=Chi Chi Mio) is probably working up a bunch of ideas that she'll post later.
Here are some also-ran ideas to tide you over until the master returns:
BoDacious Car
Big DoC/Big DiCk (neither is relevant to anything, but either would be easy to remember)
Because DMV Cares
Barack Da Chief
Whoops, I'm not logged in. This was Ann.
If you just think of the birth year of Epicurus, your license plate Woes will become license plate Wows.
341 BDC (Before da Christ)
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