Canada, Eh! Mmm…hmmm: “Vanity Insanity”

The tales of Canadian girl from Toronto now living in Southern Virginia…

When you examine a person’s car, you cannot help but imagine what the driver is like—everything from their physical appearance to their personality.  Here in Virginia, not much is left to the imagination.  Believe it or not this is the number one state for vanity plates, according to the Department of Motor Vehicle’s June 2009 report.  The data collected was based on 6,025,517 vehicles, and 1,668,137 of them being registered for personalized license plates.

A regional publication, the Virginia Pilot did a brief story about a couple whose license plates read “MR VAIN” and “MRS VAIN”.  The couple stated that they have a love of fashion and their appearance—I would not have guessed.  While the term vanity plates has been coined, is it really vanity?  Or are these people just wanting to say something?  Call Aristotle, there is something philosophical going on here.

Harbor background, $10, wonder what's "4 2MORW"?

Well, in all honest, the high number of let-me-say-what-I-want-to-say plates are more than likely attributed to its $10 annual fee.  That’s right for 10 more bucks you can let the world know your thoughts—bringing your registration fee to a mere $58 dollars.  Quite a comparison to Ontario where freedom of speech is not so free, costing $235.25—that’s without the HST of course.  With that said, if you are looking to get a vanity plate you’d better have something worth saying.

Upon further research I came across a website that published a story about an individual with the license plate 14CV88.  The article’s headline read “Virginia Revokes Hitler Saluting License Plate“.  Apparently the DMV deemed the license plate to salute Hitler.  Now, maybe the license plate uncoded this individual as a racist, but his elaborate paint job across his Ford pick-up may have given it away.  14CV88 was explained as such: the “14” refers to the 14-word motto “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The “CV” stands for “Confederate Veteran” and the “88″ signifies the eighth letter in the alphabet (H) with the double-H meaning “Heil Hitler.”  In other words, the DMV will get you!

This guy is really mad

I must say though, my rides through the ridiculous traffic here—when there should be no traffic at all—have been quite entertaining.  The speed limit here is 55 mph and people actually drive that.  Not to mention the mentality that everyone seems to have: no where to go and time is this magical thing like Santa Claus—people believe it, but can’t see it.  The vanity plates at least promote reading within the community in a state where the literacy average falls below par.

Yes, DJ blow my mind