TRYGOD and TENQGOD license plates in Delaware

I wonder just how effective proselytizing by license plate really is (see YES GOD for another example). This TRYGOD license plate invites me to do just that. I am sure the owner doesn't want me to put him down again if it doesn't work out.

Help me to interpret this one. TENQGOD. The end cue god? Thank you god? Tanka you God (broken Italian English version)? A search of the internets yields an eBayer with that handle, and that's it. They appear to be in Palmdale, California though. What good is a personalized license plate if I don't understand what you are saying to me?

tags: God, License Plates

Whimsical license plate WIMZCAL

Driving around I saw this whimsical license plate (spelled WIMZCAL) in Northern Delaware.

Delaware allows a capitol i that is more like a Roman Numeral 1 and is different from the regular i on the license plates. Clever motorists use this to their advantage in to create whimsical personalized license plates.

License Plates are the new spiritual message medium

Here is yet another attempt at proselytizing by license plate. This license plate, BYGRACE, references an important protestant Christian philosophy called sola fide. Sola fide or faith alone asserts that it is solely on the basis of God's grace through the believer's faith alone that believers are forgiven their transgressions of the Law of God.

I have always thought that the problem with this is that you could have faith and do nothing and supposedly you are saved and going to heaven. Logically and philosophically the issue is how do you know that someone has faith, and how can it have any impact on our lives.

Today's second reading at church was from James letter, and has one of the best lines in scripture: "What good is it...if someone says he has faith but does not have works". Some concrete advice for people of faith, go do some works! I like that better because then your works, because you have faith, provide some evidence of goodness. Even better, some actual good works occur and the world is a better place.

For some reason the bible needs to contain these two almost completely opposite phrases: faith without works is empty, saved by grace alone and not by works. It is certainly a more interesting apparent contradiction than the tired Old Testament harshness vs. New Testament peacefulness controversies.

So don't take your confidence in works too far, you can't buy your way into heaven with good works either. As in all things, moderation between the positions is the appropriate route. Good works show faith, faith causes us to do good works, and around and around again.

tags: license plates, proselytize, sola fide

GOOFEE and PKFLYD license plates in Delaware

Does this license plate commemorate a Disney character or does it declare a fee on baby sounds?

This car was black, so "Dark Side of the Moon" might be an appropriate song for this Pink Floyd lover. Or maybe, "Welcome to the Machine".

tags: Goofy, Pink Floyd, License Plates

YES GOD and JESUS license plates in Delaware.

Saw this in Delaware the other day. Apparently the way to answer a question from God now is to put it on your license plate - "YES GOD". Do they have another car with "NO GOD" on it?

I did see a JESUS license plate earlier in the week but I was unable to get a clear picture of it. I am still hope to see that one again. I will add it to my list of interesting personalized plates I have seen in the wild.

Parrot head license plate in Delaware?

Careful readers will remember that my powers of license plate interpretation sometimes leave a little to be desired. I myself blame the personalized license plate creators.

BUPHETT in Delaware had me in mind of Boba phett's (actually Boba Fett) twin brother (get it - clones?) but it turns out that someone must already have BUFFETT and this tardy Jimmy Buffett fan took what they could get (actually, that's Bachman-Turner Overdrive). The Key West Parrot head license plate frame should clue you in.

I have never seen the fascination with Jimmy Buffett. I do see the fascination with Key West, a really nice place with good food. My favorite are the stone crab claws when they are in season (October). They go nicely with a cold beer and baseball playoff season (especially when the Yankees are losing).

tags: license plates, Jimmy Buffet, Parrot Head, stone crab claws, Key West

WERCRZN license and Berry-man spotted in the wild

I saw this license plate on my travels, but it was early in the morning so my license plate translation skills were way off. Perhaps you can help?



Does it say?

We Are Crazy and...

or

We're Crazying

Or, perhaps they turn into dried cranberries during a full moon (an extremely rare form of lycanthropy, or is it, melosanthropy- fruitman, or coccanthropy- berry-man) and it says:

Were-Craisin.

Then I noticed the vehicle that it is on, a PT Cruiser.

Oh, the license plate says:

We're Cruisin'

Apparently it was totally lost on me.

tags: license plates, PT Cruiser

More proselytizing by license plate

This license plate orders you to be holy - UBHOLY. Or maybe they really like UB40 but wished that they had sung christian reggae.

I just wonder how effective license plate evangelization is. Are you converted? It has the drama the fundamentalists like. In the blink of an eye at the stop light I realized that I had been saved. Then the guy behind me honked because the light had been green for a while. "What are you having a religious experience or something?" he yelled. Why yes, yes I was.

tags: license plates, proselytize

Don't Blink!

My eyes dried out as I followed this car on the road because I tried to follow the instructions "to the letter". DNTBLNK license plate offers good advice for drivers to pay attention while driving.

Perhaps they might also mean don't blank. Imagine that you are on Jepardy and they have just posed the answer and you must come up with the question, "What is...". This license plate would help you to not blank on the question.

Sage advice no matter the interpretation. All I ever needed to know I learned from license plates.

Getting the devil out of politics and onto license plates

Whenever the number 666 appears somewhere intentionally, one must wonder what the messenger wants to say. There is always the possibility that there are 665 cars out there with licenses BIG001 through BIG665, but I have to think this personalized plate was chosen on purpose.

Whether you think this 666, number of the beast, refers to the Emperor Nero, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the Pope or any other fantastic numerically conjured figment of your imagination, this license plate has something for everybody.

It certainly goes well with the current propensity for politicians to call their opponents the devil. Hugo Chavez famously called George Bush the Devil during his UN speech.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the United States to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, calling
President Bush "the devil." "The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said. "He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world."

Not to be outdone, Jerry Fallwell yesterday said that the only thing that would galvanize evangelicals more than Hillary Clinton running for president would be if Lucifer did so.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, looked ahead to 2008 and the possibility that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton might be the Democratic presidential candidate. Ms. Clinton's nomination, Mr. Falwell said to laughs, would arouse even more evangelical opposition than Lucifer's.

I think in this day and age we need less diabolical, apocalyptic rhetoric rather than more. I guess I can try to be ready if need be.

tags: devil, Lucifer, license plate, Apocalypse Team, Hugo Chavez, George Bush, Jerry Falwell, Hillary Clinton

This guy really loves America

Look not just at the license plate, but closely at the flag colored license plate frame and the corner Statue of Liberty.







With bonus magnetic ribbons.




tags: license plates, USA, ribbon magnet

DNDELYN is a dandelion is a dandy lion

Serendipity happens all the time. After my tirades about weeds, suddenly there appears DNDELYN, a dandelion license plate. One must always be prepared to take advantage of serendipitous events, so I whipped out my trusty ( but crappy) Treo camera to immortalize the event.

I can only imagine that the owner of the personalized license plate likes dandelions or maybe ...

weeds

salad

tea

wine

Ray Bradbury

or couldn't fit DNDEWHLS and they're a Dandy Warhols fan.

tags: license plates, dandelions

More conversions by license plate

This person may be exhorting us to pray or they may actually be someone who does. Still, I continue to wonder if a license plate is the best place for such a message. Isn't this type of thing best left to each person's private personal convictions?

tags: license plates, proselytize, prayer

Baseball is coming - even the license plates know

This guy has his spring or summer HOMERUN license plate on. I suppose in the winter it might say GOAL or TOUCHDOWN. Can you feel that baseball is coming soon?

Anyone else out there glad that baseball season is almost here?

Doesn't this Beatle Beat all?

BEATALL license plate on a VW beatle. Appropriate.

Also, Virginia is the land of personalized license plates

Serious about sola sciptura!

This woman is serious about the scriptures being the sole source of divine revelation (no including tradition, you Catholics). She also doesn't seem to be a big fan of President Obama either.

Don't get me started about how scriptures put together over hundreds of years with the help of church tradition can be understood outside of that context.

 You may wonder if SOLAS 1 though SOLAS 4 license plates in Delaware were taken before this woman applied for her SOLAS 5 or whether a number sticker and license plate are the best vehicles for evangelism.

Golf advice on license plate

Since your ball is farthest from the hole, please go ahead and putt. Coincidentally noticed when I was away from home.

tags: license plates, golf, travel

More Crazy Delaware Blue Hen News Round Up - now with more chickens

License Plates and the Delaware Blue Hen:

The other day, I think I actually saw the car driven by YoUDee, the mascot for the University of Delaware. I assume that his license plate would be "Blue hen", but that he would be unable to spell and put BLUHENS. YoUDee himself (stands for UD, University of Delaware, get it?) is a giant Delaware Blue Hen. (and can skate as shown in this picture from the University of Delaware YoUDee website)


The Delaware militia men (and eventually the University of Delaware sports teams, and Delawareans in general) got the nickname, the fighting blue hens, because of the successful breed of rooster they used in the cock fights they staged during their leisure time between battles in the Revolutionary War. Delaware troops also fought well against the British, but no chickens were used.

Roasted Chicken Anyone?

The Delmarva peninsular (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) is world famous for the chickens they raise. If you drive to the southern part of Delaware you cannot miss the chicken houses for the smell, especially if you have the top down on the convertible, whew! One Laurel chicken house staged an impromptu Fourth of July barbecue when it caught fire and killed 3000 chickens, at an estimated damage of $13,000 (about $4.33 a chicken!). Firefighters were able to douse the fire with BBQ sauce and a spicy Jamaican rub.

The 8000 survivors will not be allowed back into their home until the damage is fixed. I am thinking of taking up a collection for these poor chickens.

New Jersey's Gambling Loss is Delaware's Gambling Gain:

In a stunning example of why less government is better, New Jersey's budget balancing woes have forced them to shut down the Atlantic City casinos. New Jersey's loss is Delaware's gain as stranded gamblers are so desperate that they are boarding busses for Delaware gambling areas at Delaware Park and Dover Downs.

Only essential state employees are still on the job in New Jersey. They should be careful not to call the gambling inspectors, park rangers or anyone else on the payroll nonessential, lest the voters wake up and realize how nonessential the Governor and the State Legislature might be. The shut down of the casinos and subsequent reapportionment of gamblers between the states should be good research fodder for econometricians down the road some day. Unfortunately, you cannot gamble on cockfighting in Delaware anymore. I guess those Blue Hens finally beat all of the other chickens.

(this is to catch up from the last Delaware Crazy Blue Hen News Round Up, which had no chickens)

tag: Delaware, YoUDee, Blue Hens, Delmarva, chickens, gambling, New Jersey

MILK4U license plate in Delaware

Perhaps this woman (it was a minivan, sue me for assuming a stereotype) supports Human Milk Banking. Not just milk for you but milk for everybody.

tags: milk, License Plates

Would you ever have this license plate in Delaware?

I encountered this ASTRAZ license plate while driving around in northern Delaware. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, ASTRAZ obviously stands for Astra Zeneca, an international pharmaceutical company with its world headquarters in Wilmington.

Unless you are the CEO, wouldn't you avoid this license plate? I don't think it was the CEO driving around in a soccer mom van that has seen better days. It would be like having DUPONT as your personal plate in this state.

Let me give some examples for the out of staters. Would you have a GM personalized plate in Detroit? PNG in Cincinnati (P&G is Proctor and Gamble headquartered there)? How about a MSOFT plate or BOEING plate in Seattle.

Seems to me that while company loyalty is great, some personalized plates are almost community property and it is a little presumptious or sycophantic to use them.

Am I just being to critical?