Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990 TAG: 9006150124
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Or you can turn the page.
Of course if you turn the page, you will see mostly obituaries, so why don't you stick with me for a moment?
With just a week to go in our Redesign Virginia's Tags and Be Famous Maybe contest, it is time to dispel a few myths.
\ Myth No.\ 1, a view commonly expressed by people who are wrong: Our license plate is just fine the way it is.
\ Fact: Virginia's license plate is so boring it could cause permanent retinal damage.
\ Myth No.\ 2, a view expressed by Jeanne Chenault of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles: It would take eight years to switch over Virginia's existing 5 million plates.
\ Fact: New York state has 12 million plates. When the state changed designs in 1986, it took two years to replace nearly every license plate, according to George Filieau, a New York motor vehicle operative.
\ Myth No.\ 3, pushed by Virginia-based anguishers: It would be sooooo expensive.
\ Fact: New York added a one-time $4 surcharge for the new plates - and broke even.
\ Myth No.\ 4, from brontosaurus types: A license plate doth not a tourism campaign make.
\ Fact: From Filieau, a man who stands beyond reproach: "There is something to be said for the image of the state. A license plate, to some degree, however small, provides some sort of indication about the state it comes from. If you see blue and white, it won't impress you."
\ Myth No.\ 5, from an individual who deserves a shot upside the brain: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And tourists mean traffic and empty cheeseburger boxes on my front lawn, that's all.
\ Fact: No state has had its license plate design as long as Virginia has - 17 years. New York's plate lasted 17 years, and when it was redesigned to include the Statue of Liberty, guess who got flushed? Crooks, creeps, felons and people who don't clean up after their dogs - in other words, the dregs of society who for years had got along just fine with falsified plates. All of a sudden, their cars stood out like sore thumbs and they are all now serving long jail terms. Filieau swears it's true.
\ Myth No.\ 6: No one has submitted an entry for Shamy's redesign-the-plate contest.
\ Fact: I have received dozens, some of them extremely bad.
\ Myth No.\ 7: There's plenty of time left to enter.
\ Fact: The deadline is Friday, June 22.
\ Myth No.\ 8: Shamy never explained the rules.
\ Fact: Use 6-inch by 12-inch paper. Use color. Make room for seven letters. Make it legible. Include the word "Virginia." Use a slogan or a drawing. Send to me, Mr. License Plate, at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, VA 24010. A blue-ribbon panel of judges will pick 10 winners and I will lobby throughout the halls of power to see one of them chosen as Virginia's new license plate.
You can turn the page now.
by CNB