Monday, April 14, 2008

The Polar Espresso

Better Latte Than Never

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON



We were at a fairground this weekend when I noticed the licence plate of this vehicle, whose owners were doing such a roaring trade that there was always a long queue of eager customers. Normal licence plates in Victoria, the state where I live, consist of three letters followed by three numerals. The registration is in blue, on a white background.

But personalised plates - or vanity plates as they are sometimes called overseas - come in an interesting variety of colours. The limit of six alpha-numeric characters still applies, but in this case, an eight-letter word was cleverly condensed into six. Given the coffee reference, I have no grounds for complaint.

(The Odd Shots concept came from Katney. Say "G'day" to her.)

33 comments:

Moosekahl said...

Ahhhh...a plate after my own heart! I can't start my day without a cup of joe.

I also have vanity plates...I love watching people go "uhmmm"

Karuema said...

interesting:)
mine is up too:
http://amazed-bear-mom.blogspot.com/2008/04/monday-odd-shot-man-vs-machine-and-man.html

Cath said...

That's cool.
If I could afford one mine would be CR4ZYC4TH if I'm allowed that many...

Maggie May said...

Very good!

Katney said...

Some of the personalized plates are a challenge to interpret.

I wonder if I had had personalized plates if they would have been stolelast summer. My rear plate (we have front and back in Washington state.) was stolen and placed on a stolen car of the same make and relative age. The stolen car was found abandoned a few days later. We know, because the sheriff in the neighboring county left a phone message that our car had been found abandoned and towed into impound. My car was sitting in the driveway with its new plates, the incident properly reported to OUR county sheriff. It is part of what comes of living on the county line--dealing with multiple jurisdictions.

Several US states now also have specialized plates for causes. My Arizona daughter has one with a caution about child abuse and her husband's recognizes him as a veteran. Here in WA you can get one for your alma mater if you attended one of the major universities in the state, including ours. We can also, and may one day, get one commemorating the national park system. As our favorite national park is featured on the regular one--Mt. Rainier--it might be redundant.

As always, you are the earliest. Here, it is barely Sunday afternoon. My odd shot for the week will appear by magic about midnight my time. (Of course, it's magic. Isn't anything related to the coputer?) It will still be Monday evening for you, so stop by and visit.

P M Prescott said...

interesting plate.

B.T.Bear (esq.) said...

Hehehe better latte then never... hahahaha

Celebration of Life said...

David: Or a subtitle could be:
"Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity"
(smile)

Pappy said...

Howdy Dave,
Thanks for coming by and leaving a comment. I think the most unusual one I saw recently was on the front of a Mercedes driven by a Urologist. The plate read "PP Dr." :)

Stacey Olson said...

Great shot. Now I had best go get a cup of coffee...LOL

Jennifer S said...

No grounds for complaint...

My license plate says Mav, which is short for Maverick...a poker nickname given to me by my husband.

Sandi McBride said...

My God David...I'm overseas? ME? I always thought that was where you were...well no not really, I thought that was where the Motherland was, and of course Europa...but especially Australia...hmmm, new thoughts on that since I have discovered I'm overseas. Makes me feel all exotic and all. Love the pics and a cup of xpresso would not be turned down!
Sandi

Anonymous said...

Coffee? It usually perks me up. Make mine a mocha, please.

Paulie said...

Good one! I have some license plates that are fun sayings also but not for this week. I will have mine up in 6 hours or so since it is barely Sunday early evening here.

Pappy said...

Hey, I've posted my Odd shots post a little early for our end of the world, and since this is my first time I thought I would leave word here as well as at Katneys.

Anonymous said...

i am groaning appropriately! Are these plates legal? Our vanity plates are issued by the states and we pay extra money. they look exactly the same as the regular ones.

ok, i just realized you knew all that.

I'm doing my first odd shots today.

Anonymous said...

Had to smile when I saw this, as am drinking coffee right now.

Here in the UK we have custom number plates, most just reflect the owners name.

Kyanite said...

See I didn't leave my link for Odd Shot - Sorry!

Merisi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kostas said...

Very good and intelligent the photograph post,
Wants good eye and brain razor, that I believe that you allocate in order to parallelism the plate of car with the film! Great!

Merisi said...

May I have a double espresso, please? ;-)

The first vanity tag I ever saw was on the car of Mr. Ewing's, of the "The Ewings" TV series. It said EWING 1.
Years later, in a Washington DC area supermarket parking lot, I encountered a car with an "I SHLEP" license plate. Loaded down with grocery bags, I smiled at the car's owner, telling her that she spoke my mind. We both laughed.

Dragonstar said...

I love that shot! And like so many others, I can't survive without my coffee!

Gypsy at heart said...

Isn't amazing what you can learn about people by "reading" their car?

Rune Eide said...

I'm not a big fan of coffee in any form (maybe with the exception of Pepsi Max - since it contains caffein), but this one absolutely knows something about advertising. Or think he does.

Ps Thank you for the pleasant comment on my blog - mesns a lot coming from a "super-blogger" like yourself!

Diane said...

I like it. And, of course, the shot is very simple and the "vanity plate" could be odd~to some! Perhaps it sums up their "bread & butter"?

Lana Gramlich said...

Reminds me of a vanity plate on a red corvette in our old apartment parking lot. It was a handicapped plate that said, "U WISH." All I could think was, "No, I REALLY don't..."
There are some very clever ones out there, though. That's for sure!
Sorry for my recent absence again--mundania intrudes!

dixymiss said...

This piX appeals on many levels... Fun shot, eXcellent use of "X" and reference to my favorite beverage!

Akelamalu said...

That's a clever one!

Kim said...

That's a cute one. My husband would love it. There are a couple of websites that catalog vanity plates. There are some pretty unique ones out there.

Unknown said...

Great catch for the Odd Shots David! Very cool.

Unknown said...

Very funny. I love to read vanity plates and figure out what they mean. However, that one is pretty upfront!

Lilli & Nevada said...

Lots of plates like that around here, i think of having one done called Cat lady, But i think it has already been taken.
Mine is up

Unknown said...

I'm a big coffee fan so I like this post. I like the plates, your title for this post and all the coffee references. Funny.