Etc.

02 BE ME: Motorists send messages via vanity plates

Waiting at stoplights, millions of drivers daily find themselves trying to decipher cryptic vanity license plates on the vehicles in front of them. Author, newspaper editor, and graphic designer Stefan Lonce, who has written a forthcoming book on the subject entitled "LCNS2ROM – License to Roam: Vanity Plates and the Stories They Tell," calls these succinct statements "minimalist poetry in motion." (LCNS2ROM is Lonce's own vanity plate.) According to a survey by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, 9.3 million cars and trucks bear personalized plates. They are most popular in Virginia, where 16 percent of state-licensed vehicles are issued vanity plates. Some examples of plates that suggest a person's occupation:

• 16 APR accountant
• 2THDR dentist
• 10SPRO tennis pro
• IFYTFYR firefighter
• LOXMIF locksmith
• 24 KT jeweler
• 10R SAX saxophonist
• 4CASTR meteorologist
• DR IIII optometrist
• MAKMLAF comedian

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