Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Proud to be a Missourian?


Mo. issues new license plates with error
ASSOCIATED PRESS
06/17/2008

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri is issuing its newly-designed license plates, complete with grammatical error and a state bird that flies south for the winter.

Motorists on Monday were issued the first of the newly-designed plates that show a bluebird perched on a branch along the bottom center of the plate. The bluebird migrates south when Missouri weather turns cold.

The state said it would not correct a grammatical error on the plate -- the missing hyphen in the state's nickname, "Show-Me State."

The snafu came to light in April when The Joplin Globe quoted a Missouri Southern State University English professor as saying the rules of grammar require the hyphen.

The Missouri Department of Revenue said that the mistake wouldn't be fixed because that's how the plate looked when it won an online contest last year.


So I thought all 3 designs they had people vote on last year were crappy, and now this comes out....I can't help but laugh! The best part is that they claim it can't be fixed because it's the design that won - well I just searched for news articles from last year and the winning plate design isn't identical to the design above which is from the department of revenue....so it's not the "actual" plate design that won anyway (notice the words "show me state" are vertical on the winning plate to the left, and the word "Missouri" is in a different font). I liked the old plates and I don't get why we had to change anyway.

So rather than have one of these ugly pieces of junk on my car when I renew next month I will likely be investing in one of Missouri's "nearly 200" vanity plate designs...a small sampling is below. Each requires a donation to the sponsoring organization. I am leaning toward the "pet-friendly" plate.

4 comments:

JBear1982 said...

I have the new plates and I didn't notice the snafu. I think the new plates look less boring. Personally, I like the Cardinals plate. That is funny tho about the grammatical error.

gimlet said...

I like that the state changed the design of plates so that the renewal sticker goes in the middle, instead of down in the corner. That's a much better solution than having the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police bother themselves catching the thieves who steal them.

Anonymous said...

Yeah ... now they will just take the entire plate ...

Merc Man said...

I don't really care about the error. I'm more bothered by the lame state motto Missouri has. Other states get "Live Free or Die", or "The Granite State". We get "Show-Me State"? What kind of motto is that?

I vote we get something cool like "The Kick-Ass State", or the "Armed-to-the-Teeth State". Now there's some mottos you can set your watch by!