I need to register my newly acquired car. Actually I got it as a gift a few months ago but just now got the title. It’s a white 1983 Mercedes 240D (Diesel). I may consider a vanity plate if I can think of a good one. Ideas I’ve had so far:
Straight Dope related:
[ul]
[li]HIOPAL or 3HIOPAL (stolen from an earlier thread)[/li][li]SDMB[/li][/ul]
Related to my work/research:
[ul]
[li]IQUV (4 parameters used to characterize polarized light)[/li][li]60 KEV (Energy of the most commonly used X-ray calibration source, Americium-241)[/li][li]SUMI (name of the project I work on, also sounds Japanese which is appropriate for me)[/li][/ul]
Related to my hobbies:
[ul]
[li]BNTBIKE or BENTBIK (recumbent bicycle)[/li][/ul]
I can’t think of anything related to the make/model or appearance of the car itself. (I don’t have a photo online but it looks like this one).
The SUMI suggestion reminds me of one of the little anecdotes I read in Reader’s Digest many moons ago. Something about a lawyer who wanted a vanity plate, and was torn between something related to his profession, and something celebrating his (or his wife’s? It really was quite a long time ago) Japanese heritage. The vanity plate ended up reading “Sosumi”
Sounds apocryphal, but that could be because I know the history of the Apple Macintosh sound effect “Sosumi” (with the same meaning), a thinly-veiled shot at Apple Records, who forced Apple to agree never to go into the music business.
