@ sixes & sevens

Virtually lint free

Virtually lint free
Originally uploaded by sixes & sevens

This latest bit of advertising fluffery has me particularly baffled.

First off, what does 'virtually' actually mean in this case: How little lint qualifies as 'virtually free'? Do the Consumer Protection folks have standards for lint content in toilet paper? Would I even notice if it were 'slightly less than viturally lint free'?

And since when has lint been a problem in toilet paper? I suspect that it's also 'virtually twig free' too.

New York doctor (blue base variant)

New York doctor (blue base variant)
 

Some of my plate collecting friends think me some kind of expert on New York State license plates. And I'll admit I know a fair amount about them, still far short of being an expert. The plate above proves the point.

Among the many types of plates handed out in New York State to professional employees is the doctor or 'MD' plate. New York has issued plates for doctors officially since 1939 and probably unofficially for a few years before that. The 'blue base' like the one above was issued between 1966 and 1973. By 1966 there a lot of doctor plates being issued. Until 1966 most base plates were valid for one or two years. The blue base was the first to stay on the road for seven years.

In order to accommodate the demand of the multi-year plate, several numbering systems were used:

• MD prefix (MD-1234)
• MD suffix (1234-MD)
• MD infix (2MD-345, 12MD-34 and 123MD-4)

We know this to be the types issued because the New York Department of Motor Vehicles published lists of all plates issued and their county of issue. The last known list issued during this period, dated 1971, has the registration 825MD-9 as the highest issued in the MD sequence. It would be easy to assume that this sequence would continue to its natural end, 999MD-9 and still provide enough plates. What's more, all the plates from 100MD-1 up are identified in the list simply as "Albany Surplus".

That would be the end of the story, a fairly dull one at that, were it not for the plate that came up on eBay and that I nabbed (for a penny, by the way: there are still 'bargains' to be had).

I've gotta put these thoughts in a post if only to get them out of my mind ... :

dour - pour - sour

You gotta love English for its aggravating inconsistencies. I think this lodged in my head after a discussion about how the first word in the list is usually pronounced door (which, now that I look at it, is a different word pronounced a different way, i.e., dore) and not dower to rhyme with sour or hour.

The second of these thoughts comes at it from a different angle: how the same word might be pronounced in any of several ways.

you're: ewer? yer? yore?

This may have come by analogy with your, a rhyming entry akin to pour above. I can't say with any certainty which of these pronunciations I use most frequently. If you check the different audio guides in Dictionary.com you'll hear a subtle difference. I expect I pronounce it ewer more than most people I know. But is some of this regional or just affected?