@ sixes & sevens

The Wax Plate Museum

I HAVE BEEN MULLING OVER reviving my blog posts lately, but this idea was so spectacular that it rose to the top instantly.

I was trawling eBay for vintage photographs when I came across this item depicting the automobile Mexican president Obregon was riding in when an assassination attempt was made on him. It includes a partial of the license plate, a Distrito Federal plate from 1927. I was commenting to Kiki on how frustrating it was the entire plate wasn't in the photo.

Kiki's reply was that I should open a museum with replicas of famous license plates -- a "Wax Plate Museum." I could include plates from famous vehicle accidents, like James Dean's or, she added waggishly, Abraham Lincoln. I mentioned Isadora Duncan and lamented that it might be difficult to find out what the plate number was on her car. Kiki said, "Hey, they're already reproductions." Once you start thinking about this -- Albert Camus and Jayne Mansfield and Harry Chapin and Princess Grace and either of the Allman Brothers come to mind -- the possibilities seem endless.

As it happens, replica plates of the Porsche Spyder Dean was driving pop up constantly on eBay (see above). As far as I know it's the only one of its kind, so there's plenty of opportunity out there.

"Is There Anybody Out There?"

Long before I became a Facebook 'enthusiast' (something this side of an addict?) I had stopped posting to this blog. Instead I would make a note in my cellphone of something that caught my attention -- a concept, turn of phrase, language abuse, anagram or neologism -- with an idea of 'doing something about it' at a later date.

Well, it's definitely a later date now, and still no new blog posts. And these things continue to pile up in my cellphone. I expect one day it will inform me there's no more room. I've thought of spooling these out, maybe a week at a time, just to get them off my mind and into print.

A colleague from MPOW asked me recently why I hadn't posted anything here for so long, and I related this very story ... and got no sympathy at all. So I've transcribed them below. If anybody wants me to take up one of these first, let me know and I'll spin it out.

Field <=> filed <=> flied … and Fidel
Bra-chitecture
Lost in place
Pheromenon
Mañanismo
Faux-pulence
Crew d’état
Rasputation
Antiskeptic / Antisceptic
Pathways of desire
Thermal toupées
Please <=> asleep
Tenants ≠ tenets
Wheelchair-accessible ≠ wheelchair assessable (new 1/25)
Constructive selfishness: "I took out the garbage because I just couldn't stand it anymore."
erotic ≠ erratic
Phlegmatically mercurial = sullenly moody? (a certain someone) (1/30)
coupons: koopons vs. Q-pons (2/2)
clandestiny (2/6)