Is it really cheap to obtain a vanity license plate in Ohio? When I was growing up in NY, I thought only drug dealers and Wall streeters got them, but they seem really common here. I’ve been photographing them for as long I’ve lived in Ohio and recently noticed that I have hundreds of examples. I’ve edited them down to my favorites, arranged thematically.
Today’s theme is meta expression. “Gee, what should my vanity license plate say? I know — it’ll identify my car!” If only that could help you remember where you parked it… Above, the oh-so-clever KIA PET. Continuing with the puns, we’ve got COOP UP:
RDSTER1:
MYCUBBY:
Some car owners opt for the car/color combo. To wit, BLUBOXR and KIWI BUG:
This driver’s PT DREAM has become a reality:
GR MCHNE probably references the color of this car, but I prefer to think of it as the “grrr” machine:
My apologies if I photographed your license plate and that creeps you out. I swear, I’m not stalking you; I just have an eye for weird minutiae. Stay tuned for the next part in this riveting new series.
Edited to add DIVABUG, MINIBUZ and THE PEA:
Department of Everyday Visualingual 
some one spends $105 a year on MYCUBBY?
Okaaaay
Grreat!!
Heh, you won’t believe how many more examples I’ve got, and the subject matter gets even more strange. I don’t even document the ones that are clearly vanity license plates but don’t mean anything to me.
I went to NC two weeks ago and we drove by SWETDRM in West Virginia. We read it as Sweat Dream and had a good laugh about it.
I believe they were going for Sweet Dream but it definitely did not read that way.
I always wonder how quickly vanity plate owners forget about their plate. And if they ever catch people looking and laughing at them and wondering why.
Sweat dream, LOL! Or, sweat drum, perchance? I love finding bizarre vanity license plates, but I can’t really fathom getting one myself. They’re ridiculous!
I have one, I’ve had it 10 yrs so it predates the blog, twitter and everything else. But you can still probably easily guess what it is.
Heh, I’ve seen your license plate but never managed to take a photo. That’s probably just as well — it preserves some modicum of mystery, doesn’t it? 😉
I think my all-time favorite vanity plate is ILMHNSF…
WestEnder, is it “I left my heart in San Francisco?”
That’s what I figured! I got a kick out of it.
That was a bit of a struggle. There ought to be a ban on overly engaging vanity license plates; don’t they make driving a bit of a hazard?
That was exactly my thought as I saw the plate on the winding portion of I-75 through the Smokies! I also passed an “8 2 MUCH” driven by a big fella who looked to be about 300 lbs.; that was a good one, too.
Pics or it didn’t happen.
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 2 « Visualingual
Love this series! I think I have the coolest plate ever, if you do a design/type geek edition let me know & I’ll send you mine. It’s EM DASH.
That is a good one! The rule has been that I have to see everything in the wild, but maybe I can make an exception, just this once.
I do live in Cincy so it’s possible to catch it
In that case, I will try to stalk you!
Ha, that’s cool, I won’t feel creeped out by someone following me with a camera then. I’m in OTR fairly frequently, want a heads up or is that cheating?
LOL, I think that would be cheating. I’ve gotten caught by drivers a couple of times, and it’s been funny to try to explain this “project” to strangers.
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 3 « Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 4 « Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 5 « Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 6 « Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 7 | Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 8 | Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 9 | Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 10 | Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 11 | Visualingual
Pingback: Field Guide to the Vanity License Plates of Southwestern Ohio: Part 12 | Visualingual