It’s not what they say it’s how you read them – Personalised Plates

I’m curmudgeonly at best, according to MrsPdubyah, but as age and reason take over youth and exuberance I find myself questioning a few things. So then Personalised Plates

I was driving home recently and was driving behind a Black Kia Cerrato what had the number plate “SHITOT” I know it’s a Black Kia because I looked it up on carjam.co.nz 🙂

The next day I cruised up behind a blinged up Honda Civic

Being a bit of a curmudgeon I thought I’d look to see what constituted offensive and inappropriate in terms of what you can and can’t have as a number plate. Seems you can’t have a number plate starting with ARS, BUM, CUN, DUM, FAK, FAT and FUZ which are among 25 of those that the NZTA has banned already.

Stuff.co.nz reports :

From July 2010 till August 2011 the agency blocked six plates from being made after it was contacted by Personalised Plates Ltd. The agency also recalled a further six after complaints from the public.

Of the dozen plates, three used the c-word, including one in Afrikaans, which was recalled after it was issued. A Broadcasting Standards Authority survey last year found the c-word to be the most offensive swear word in New Zealand.

Two featuring the f-word were banned, and three with racist references to black people were recalled, as was CTKLR (cat killer).

A plate referring to the Hiroshima bombing in 1945 was blocked from being made.

Message plates allow smaller lines of text to be written above and below the central word, so the plate would have read “The Big Bang Theory ENOLA Gay”.

Enola Gay was the name of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which killed about 140,000 people. After a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed about 74,000, the Japanese surrendered and World War II came to an end.

The plate was blocked before it was produced because it was “likely to offend”, Transport Agency spokesman Andy Knackstedt said. A plate that said only Enola was allowed.

Also reported elsewhere Personalised plates which have not been allowed include FNC0LD and OHCOCK, while RDY24Q and DARKIE are among those which have been recalled.

But it seems SHITOT is ok, as is BOLX. In an email exchange with the Plates.co.nz people they said that SHYTOT was still on a vehicle and that B0LX could be B naught Fity TEN maybe a dairy farmer. – who knew that B0Lx was a dairy term.

I’ll concede that SHYTOT could be just that a SHY TOT – tot of course being a slang for a young child, I did check and SHYBOY isn’t issued but that SHYGAL is (i’ve done research!).

Like I stated with I get the desire to have an expression that in anarchic, a finger to the establishment, and fair play if you can get one past them, but I’ve now contacted the NZTA and have to write to them with a complaint, this will calm the inner crank in me.