WTF? NC Offers to Replace 10,000 License Plates 467
beadfulthings writes "In light of recent discussions about the Internet habits of the older generation, it's comforting to know that in North Carolina, up to 10,000 license plates containing the potentially offensive 3-letter WTF combination will be replaced by the Motor Vehicles division at no cost — if the owner of the vehicle finds the plates offensive. As reported on Winston-Salem's television station WXII, the MVD was alerted to the problem by an irate 60-year-old technology teacher who'd been clued in by her grandchildren. The article includes a helpful slide show of twenty Internet acronyms every parent should know. The article doesn't include any information on how you could actually apply for a WTF license plate."
So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)
They are going to use taxpayer dollars for this? If I lived in NC *I* would be the one shouting 'WTF?' for real!
Way To Fail (Score:3, Funny)
Here are a lot of non-offensive explanations:
1. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
2. Wednesday Thursday Friday
3. Wow Text File
4. Write To File
5. Welcome To France (lolcats)
6. We The French
7. Work Time Fun
More unique stuff here [thefreedictionary.com]
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Welcome To France and We The French are patently offensive.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Wery Tantalizing, Friend,
We Think Few
Weasonable Testers Found
Whacking The French
Was Too Fruitful.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
8. Whip The French
8. We Thump French
10. Wussies! The French.
11. What Text File?
12. Wild Tattoo Fun
13. Why The Face?
14. Why The Frown?
15. What The Fork()
16. Washing The Ford
17. Waving To Fergie
18. Wanting That Female
19. Willing To Fornicate
Re:Way To Fail (Score:5, Funny)
Is that what they call it these days?
Re:Way To Fail (Score:4, Funny)
Waxing the Frigate?
I think I just sunk my own battleship :(
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What's all that obsession with the French?
Is it because they are too small to bite us back?
Free to have their own thoughts and culture, different from ours?
It's easy to pick on your little brother, more difficult to do the same on a real bully.
Maybe that's why we like to kid the French, while the Chinese scare us...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
What's all that obsession with the French?
Is it because they are too small to bite us back?
Free to have their own thoughts and culture, different from ours?
It's easy to pick on your little brother, more difficult to do the same on a real bully.
Maybe that's why we like to kid the French, while the Chinese scare us...
I pick on them because when I traveled in Europe they were dicks. I spent 9 months going all around Europe, being the best visitor I could be. I traveled through GB, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy, East Germany and France. In all those places, except France, I was treated well, with a few exceptions. In France, I was treated rudely and poorly, with a few exceptions.
I treated the French, and everybody else, with respect. The French were rude enough to not return my respect.
Re:Way To Fail (Score:4, Informative)
You are aware that the French are partially responsible for the American Revolutionary War victory George Washington scored over the British, right?
Americans really should learn more history, even their own would help them to navigate the currents of this world's events.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You are aware that the French are partially responsible for the American Revolutionary War victory George Washington scored over the British, right?
Americans really should learn more history, even their own would help them to navigate the currents of this world's events.
We had a common enemy at the time. Lets be honest we like the British as long as they don't tell us what to do. Hence why we basically made nice nice after the war of 1812
Re:Way To Fail (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Way To Fail (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Willy burrowing speckle-Throated Five-toed yak.
Re:Way To Fail (Score:5, Interesting)
Internet jargon? A friend got in a little trouble for writing "WTF?" on a student's essay back in '84. He explained that it stood for "What's this for?" But the acronym probably dates back at least to WW2.
Re:Way To Fail (Score:5, Insightful)
Which leads to the question, why are bad words so damn bad? I never understood how adults can look down on children crying because they got called a doodoo head, only to throw an unquestioned punch at whoever tells them 'fuck you'. What's the best way to stop this childishness? Quit beating you kids when they curse. I think strict child abuse laws is the reason why swearing is becoming more acceptable. In the mean time we have to deal with anyone that went through this to hold a greater grudge against a politician that swears as opposed to a politician that is blatantly corrupt. Try saying fuck on a campaign trail and see how well that goes. That kind of childishness pisses me off.
Re:Way To Fail (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like we need the 7 words you can't say on TV even more than ever.....RIP George Carlin
Re:Way To Fail (Score:4, Interesting)
That is one of the things I love in Kurt Vonnegut's The Big Space Fuck [pierretristam.com]:
...so even the President was saying shit and fuck and so on, without anybody's feeling threatened or taking offense. It was perfectly OK. He called the Space Fuck a Space Fuck and so did everybody else...
On the other hand Bush has been making inroads [typepad.com] in that direction...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I think it's the message, not the word (Score:3, Informative)
While the word itself is no worse than any other word, I think it's the conveyed hostility that gets people's panties in a knot.
A word is just a word, and conveys no more and no less meaning that is assigned to it. That one word is obscene or offensive and another isn't, is, well, just because we needed to designate some words as offensive or obscene. Because essentially we needed to communicate just that message.
Even if you designed a language without swearwords, people will invent their own. See how peopl
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Funny)
My license place has DRM on it, which offends me almost as much as the real stuff. Thankfully it's sitting in my garage where my house number is 404, so no one sees it anyway.
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, sometimes random number plates can be pretty unambiguous
http://www.manbottle.com/picture_library/ass_orgy_license_plate [manbottle.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, from reading the article, this sounds like it might be a standard practice: If you have an issue with the randomly-assigned number you are given you can take it in and get a new one. The specific letters are just what brought the issue to this newspaper's attention.
So, in other words, this is non-news.
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)
They are offering to exchange them to any owner who is offended, they aren't recalling them.
In the big scheme of things, I think this will be like hot coffee... where only a tiny tiny fraction ever come forward and get an exchange.
Lots of 3 letter combos aren't issued, wtf got added to the list, and anyone who currently has it can have it exchanged without having to pay the usual fees for new plates.
This is a non-issue.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
In New York there are plates that start with BBW it doesn't mean driving the car is a Fat Chick.
Yes, but where will they sell them? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes, but where will they sell them? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
My plate... (Score:2)
...will say LOL, and I'll be following right behind WTF.
The real story is the clueless teacher (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The real story is the clueless teacher (Score:5, Funny)
They do this because they know it's the only way they can communicate with the rest of the world.
What else are you supposed to do when stringing more than 3 letters together is a challenge?
Re: (Score:2)
What else are you supposed to do when stringing more than 3 letters together is a challenge?
This is the first rational explanation I've ever heard for people who don't know how to spell the word "than".
Re:The real story is the clueless teacher (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I know a ex-yahoo employee who liked wearing this shirt [counteragent.com] around the office. It has a bunch of 'net acronyms on it -- "omg wtf stfu pwn4d uran00b lmaorotf kthxbye:p" -- in the format of an eye chart.
Sadly, apparently many of his fellow yahoos recognized few, if any of the acronyms. You'd hope these guys would be a little more in touch with the people who use their products...
Suffice it to say, I'm willing to cut this teacher a little slack. Most people in the US don't speak our language. Even those in the
POS (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't tell anyone it actually means "Piece of Shit." NC is running out of possible 3 letter combinations!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll second that...
NALOPKT?
WTF?!
Where is MIUAIGA? (Score:2)
Making It Up As I Go Along
Re: (Score:2)
Whatever happened to the ones in standard usage? Such as: brb, bbiab, bbl, afk, afaik, lol, rotflmao, ttl, ty, yw, oth, imo, 143, bff, ruok, oic, irl, l33t, etc. Stuff like that.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Curiously, you also often hear both standard meanings of PoS applying to the same product.
In a meeting, I once very very nearly said 'Piece Of Shit' when I meant to say 'Point Of Sale' :)
Good combinations (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
HTM-404 seems good also
Re:Good combinations (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"P0N.1E5" is a short way of saying "P0N100000".
horrible list of acronyms (Score:2)
I just read through the list of "20 Internet Acronyms All Parents Should Know".....only two I've actually seen in actual use.
They should really l2internetslang because they got wtfpwnt like a bunch of n00bs :)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I bet any amount of money they made the majority of those up to look tech savvy.
I imagin if I started typing PAL all the time while chatting, my friends would just think I'm trying to shout the word, not use it as an acronym.
That's my state! (Score:2)
All the retards of Alabama and none of the charm.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, don't knock Alabama. A friend of mine had two motorcycles with personalized tags: GTFA and FYYFF. He made up alternate versions of what they stood for (they asked when he registered them).
EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW! (Score:2)
Those 20 acronyms are a total joke. It looks like the only ones in common use are ASL and IRL, which appears as part of "let's meet in real life." Spreading this kind of misinformation won't help anyone.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW! (Score:4, Funny)
The sad part? (Score:3, Funny)
He's a technology teacher and he doesn't know what "WTF" stands for. Just what technology is he actually teaching about?
He is 60 years old. (Score:2)
I am guessing it has something to do with steam engines.
Re: (Score:2)
WTF Joining a Long List (Score:5, Funny)
Please... (Score:2)
The only thing more stupid..... (Score:5, Interesting)
.....than being afraid of words is being afraid of acronyms that might stand for those words.
Really, someone needs to.....
(1).....take every possible three-letter combination
(2) Come up with a suggested offensive, blasphemous, or obscene connotation for each one.
(3) Circulate said list widely, especially on North Carolina related sites and boards (maybe e-mail to everyone in the N.C. DMV).
(4) Stand back and watch the fun as they are forced to recall every last fuckin' license plate and replace it with numbers-only plates.
Re:The only thing more stupid..... (Score:5, Funny)
You know... (Score:2)
With a right dictionary, a rather simple piece of code could do that...
Re: (Score:2)
(4) would be a trick in CA, as number only plates are reserved for government cars (public transportation, police cars, fire trucks, USPS fleet...)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's totally 1337.
Lucky... (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to have WTFLOL in NY... but apparently someone took the time to actually complain to the DMV about it so the NY DMV sent me a new set of plates with a letter explaining the situation.
It was a sad day. Sad that someone would actually take that kind of time to complain about a license plate.
So now I have SRSLY b/c it is srsly retarded that I had to turn in the old plates.
Re:Lucky... (Score:5, Funny)
A few years back, Smoking Gun obtained a ton of DMV complaint letters about vanity plates and put it on their site. Link [thesmokinggun.com]
GOT MILF? (Score:4, Funny)
My favorite is still the guy that managed to get "GOT MILF" on his license plate. Even better is the picture of the florida plate "A55 RGY", which doesn't seem bad until you see it - the florida orange in the middle of the plate looks like a big O.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Carlin (Score:3, Funny)
George Carlin would have been proud!
WTF? (Score:2)
How does a "Technology teacher" not know what WTF means in this day and age?
What technology does she teach? How to make a buggy?
are you afraid, parents? (Score:5, Funny)
The article includes a helpful slide show of twenty Internet acronyms every parent should know.
This is the funniest list since Microsoft did one a few years back (I can't' find the link any more)
From this helpful list...
POS-- Parents over shoulder? Not piece of shit or point of sale- and not to be confused with the other MENACING parents-are-here including Parents-in-room (PIR), Parent alert (p911), Parents-are-watching (PAW), Parents-are-listening (PAL), "keeping-parents-clueless" (KPC), and my favorite NIFOC (nude in front of computer), which of course you'd want to keep abbreviated when other people are in the room so they won''t find out (?HUH?) Then there's the ultimately chilling NALOP (Not a lot of people know this)...
WTF? After what I'm guessing is probably an equal amount of research, I've discovered up some for their next edition of the list. Frightening to think our children use these.
ISDOOMPH (I'm Selling Drugs Out Of My Parents House), IWKMYITST (I Will Kill My Parents In Their Sleep Tonight), UHWMD? (Do You Have Weapons of Mass Destruction?), ITGPAHAAWBC (I Think Getting Pregnant And Having An Abortion Would Be Cool), IHGDY? (I Hate God Do You?), LPG (Lets Poison Grandma), ROFML (Rolling On Floor Mainlining), RBIF (Robbing Banks is Fun), LSGTAWS (Lets Sniff Glue Tonight And Worship Satan), MPWNFTAO (My Parents Will NEVER Figure This Acronym Out), and GG (Golly Gee).
UH WTF (Score:2)
Here in Colorado (Score:2)
...if two people complain about your custom plate, it will be taken away from you. In the pre-Internet days, it happened to a driver who had OUI-OUI.
There are some folks here with much too little to do.
rj
They can have my SIOOMA plate... (Score:2)
... when they suck it out of my cold dead ass.
It started with road signs (Score:5, Interesting)
Along the same lines... I was raised in Ohio and lived on State Route 69.
When i got home from the military in the 60's the route had been changed to State Route 235.
Mom said it was changed because the college students were stealing all of the road signs along the highway but she did not know why they would be doing that.
Re:It started with road signs (Score:5, Funny)
Discount! (Score:2, Informative)
etc.. away with a discount.
Well people are nuts.
Those administration too, what should people do when being named "Dick" ?
sue their parents ?
or can such names be banned to get registered for birth certificate ?
I cant get it anymore those people dont have a life, they should get one.
And a convict once... (Score:2, Funny)
....decided to buy a personalised number-plate for his daughter Louise-Anne while he was in prison. She got the numberplate LAG-1, which didn't quite make him the brightest light-bulb in the building.
True story (Score:2)
Ebay (Score:2)
Heh, I see a lot of NC plates on E-Bay soon. If I had one of those, I'd be hawking it...
I remember seeing a german plate one time that had 'FUCK-nnn' or something. Turned out that FUCK was the designation of some town or other.
Didn't Exxon pick that name because it was meaningless in every language?
OMGWTF7 Plate (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, here in Virginia the state charges for a "WTF" license plate [flickr.com]. Now that's good governance.
I have one of these (Score:3, Interesting)
The list doesn't help (Score:3, Informative)
Man (Score:3, Funny)
damn, they think that was bad! (Score:5, Funny)
What about the time I went with my gay friend to the gay bar to show I was cool and not prejudiced against homos and made the mistake of wearing my AC/DC t-shirt. Acronym malfunction doesn't even begin to describe it.
Re:damn, they think that was bad! (Score:5, Informative)
AC/DC is the name of a band (who the GP is apparently a fan of) and also a slang term for bisexual.
So logically... (Score:5, Funny)
So, any license plate that has one or more of these letters is suspect; S, P, F, C, M, or T. (C appears twice in the list, so any license plate that has two Cs in it is especially bad.)
Bureaucrats who worry about this kind of shit are as worthless as tits on a boar. Those cocksucking motherfuckers really piss me off. What a bunch of cunts. Fuck them.
Initialism (Score:4, Informative)
WTF (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, This Feels Weird. To Fund Withdrawal The Feds Will Tax Far Worse. This Furore Will Take Forever!
I had a similar problem (Score:4, Funny)
The Ohio DMV gave me "FA66ET".
While it wasn't spelled correctly, I still got looks from quite a few passersby and fellow motorists.
After I couldn't take it any more, I went down and reported the plates stolen.
We'd never have goat sex (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Turkish ISP's Glider? (Score:2)
Re:Heh (Score:4, Funny)
this section in preferen
ces. (And the greasemo
nkey scripts I was reco
mmended don't work so
well...)
Someone over at Slashd
ot really needs to take a
serious look at why the
comment field is so stup
id narrow. Why, it's almo
st almost unusably narr
ow. I mean, how difficult
would it be to set the fiel
d to a usable width? Ju
st multiply the width by a
bout a factor of five or si
x. Or better yet, use a
percentage, like say nin
ety percent or somethin
g in that neighbourhood.
Sheesh!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'm writing this at 1920x14
40. The problem is, I use
this resolution, in part, bec
ause I want to see more o
n the screen. I'd say the t
ext box is taking up mayb
e 1/8 th of the window, foll
owed by nothing for 7/8th
of the screen. What a was
te of space.
Re:Heh (Score:4, Informative)
You guys do know that you can set the width and height of the reply box using that "Options" button beneath it, right?
I've set it to 80x25 once, and that was that...
np: Lyrics Born - Do U Buy It? (Everywhere At Once)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
OH SHIT THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG
PARENT OVER SHOULDER!!!
PARENT OVER SHOULDER!!!
(alksjf;klajsldjf alskdjflasjfla sdklfajsldkfj alskdfjklasjdflakdjflkajdflkajdflkadjfalksdjf)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Caucazoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid.