License Plates

The little bird pictured on South Carolina's new license plates is ruffling the feathers of experts, who say it is not a Carolina wren as the plate's makers claim. "The rendition looks more like a sparrow than a wren," said John Cely, a biologist at the South Carolina Department of Wildlife and Marine Resources. Cely said Carolina wrens generally are brown, have long, needle-like bills and tend to cock their tails at 90 degrees.

A Canadian company's plan to market a license plate cover that obscures the camera lens view of cars passing an automatic speed detector has been blocked by state law. Platinum Communications of Vancouver planned to begin selling the $20 covers within two weeks to motorists in Pasadena--where police began using a photo-radar system to ticket speeders June 3--but sales and marketing director Terry Kuehne said the California law is "a definite obstacle."

With arts-loving motorists paying instead of taxpayers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed pumping nearly $2 million more next year into the budgetary tank of the California Arts Council. Since the state's budget crunch hit in fiscal 2003-04, California has ranked last in the nation in per capita funding for its arts agency. Under the plan Schwarzenegger unveiled this week, arts council funding would jump from the current $3.3 million to $5.1 million in fiscal 2006-07.

Dear Street Smart: I realize that the Department of Motor Vehicles screens personalized license plates for possible obscene meanings, but what is the law concerning obscene or lewd license plate holders ? We've all seen the license plate holders with the cutesy (and very often ridiculous) messages, such as "John & Marsha 4 Ever," "Patrick's Grandma," "Teachers Do It With Class," and so forth. But what if the message is downright obscene and offensive.

One of the latest fund-raising fads to hit the California charity circuit is the sale of specialized license plates that benefit everything from wilderness conservation to arts education. Want to show Yosemite National Park you care? For 50 bucks, buy a license plate depicting the snowy peaks and azure skies that have made the park famous. Proceeds go to the preservation-minded Yosemite Fund, after the state Department of Motor Vehicles takes its cut. Eager to give children's causes a hand?

Dear Street Smart: My car was in an accident at the end of December. I was rear-ended and the front of the car was quite demolished when I was shoved into a huge pole. My car is almost ready to be returned. My back license plate is OK, but the front one is creased, torn and looks too awful to put back on my nice car. I happen to like my license number, "2GGE. . . ," which I laughingly call "two eggs over easy," and I don't want to get another plate.

Two boys squat in the thin shade of a utility pole on a scorching Bangkok sidewalk, peering at the license plates on an oncoming car. The last number is odd, a five. To the yelp of victory, money changes hands. In a nearby cafe, three men sit silently over a round of sweating beers and Mekhong whiskey. They watch the gecko lizards gripping the walls and ceiling, waiting for one to begin its staccato chatter. The bets are down: four chirps, six or seven.

The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to create a special license plate to memorialize the victims of the Sept.11 attacks and to spend the revenue on scholarships and the fight against terrorism. Action on the bill by Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) all but assured that it will become law in the next week or so when it reaches Gov. Gray Davis, who has endorsed it. On a 29-0 vote, the Senate sent the bill back to the Assembly for approval of changes made in the Senate.

The automobile license plate of Bay Area earthquake victim Buck Helm will be on public display soon, and his former wife says she hopes it will serve as a symbol to "give others strength against all odds to hold on." Helm, 58, a longshoreman from Weaverville, was found alive after being trapped in his car for 90 hours amid the rubble of the section of Interstate 880 in Oakland that collapsed in the Oct. 17 temblor. He died on Nov. 18 in an Oakland hospital.

Louk Markham failed to make the "Guinness Book of World Records" with the claim that he has the largest collection of license plates in the world. But that did not stop him from boasting the largest such collection in the Southeast area and certainly in all of Downey. He has license plates from Afghanistan before the Russian invasion, from South America, parts of Europe, Canadian provinces and, of course, from every state and territory of the United States, including hundreds from California.