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Re: USAGE: names for pillbug/wood louse/woodbug

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Monday, March 15, 2004, 20:40
On Mon, Mar 15, 2004 at 12:14:38PM -0800, Philippe Caquant wrote:
> I think it's a problem for car plates, because it must > be rather difficult to find some which don't bring > jokes around, at least if you use series of 3 letters > (and the English do, I think). Suppose your car plate > mentions BAG, or BUG, or even BOG ? (is O allowed ? in > France, it's not).
The rules for license plates in the US vary from state to state. Those states which intermix letters and numbers may skip O in order to avoid confusion with 0, and may also skip I to avoid confusion with 1, but here in Georgia the letters and numbers in the normal plates are separated (the normal pattern is "ABC 1234"), so no confusion arises. There is still the possibility of confusion in vanity plates, however, which allow the vehicle owner to request any combination of 7 letters and digits in any order, subject to review and approval by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Certain patterns are often skipped in the automatic enumeration; you mentioned ASS, and other candidates are FUC, FUK, GOD, etc. The fully-spelled forms are also rejected in vanity applications. -Mark

Replies

Ph. D. <phild@...>License Plates (was Re: USAGE: names for pillbug/wood louse/woodbug)
Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>