IMSMART License Plate
Driving home from the Robert Plant/Allison Krause concert last night with my wife, I spotted a car with ‘IMSMART’ on the vanity license plate.
This plate got me thinking. In fact I thought about the possible implications of having such a plate all the way home as my wife dozed off next to me.
Now, I don’t know if the person behind the wheel of this particular car is smart. They may be. They may not be, who’s to know?
If they really are smart, why do they feel the need to tell everyone?
If they aren’t smart, are they trying to cover up this fact? If so, wouldn’t their friends and neighbors realize this and point it out or perhaps gossip amongst themselves?
“Hey Fred? Remember the time you set the dog on fire trying to light the Barbeque? That wasn’t too smart now was it?”
“See Mildred, I told you Fred thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. Now he’s gone out and got himself a license plate that tells the whole world! IMSMART indeed! That has got to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen.”
Many of us see hundreds of cars everyday and most likely don’t pay much attention to the license plate. What really got me thinking about this one is the simple fact that I live in New York where drivers are famous or perhaps infamous for ‘communicating’ their feelings for and about other drivers both verbally and through the extensive use of gestures including, but not limited to extending a single digit in the general direction of motorists who are perceived to possess less than satisfactory driving skills.
With this in mind I thought to myself, ”Wow! Talk about setting yourself up for potential ridicule.”
Can you imagine having an ’IMSMART’ vanity tag and then cutting someone off? At the next light the offended New Yorker pulls up and has a field day based on your tag alone! How does one respond? How can one respond? I mean, you’ve announced for the whole world to see ‘IMSMART’ and they you did something dumb.
As I made my way home, I thought that perhaps ‘IMDUMB’ might be a much safer choice. At least if you did something wrong and were accosted by another motorist you could point out that they had ample warning based on your tag.
As I convinced myself that ‘IMDUMB’ might be a better option, I realized that usage of the word ‘DUMB’ would not be politically correct. Of course I also realized that if you really think that you’re dumb, you might not be too concerned about being politically correct anyway.
Some other adjectives came to mind such as ‘STUPID’. I’m fairly certain that ‘IMSTUPID’ would do the trick, in fact, it might actually prevent many problems.
Think about it. An irate driver would have to pause and wonder “Who would be stupid enough to put “IMSTUPID” on their license plate? Further more, if they are really that stupid, do I really want to get into an altercation with this person?” We all do stupid things but maybe, just maybe acting stupid sometimes can actually payoff.
A better option may have been ‘GETSMART’. ‘GETSMART’ could imply that the driver of the vehicle is a fan of the popular show Get Smart. It also implies that one should think about getting smarter and could actually be a good tag for a college admissions person. What it doesn’t imply is the cursed “I’m smarter than you”.
All things considered, a Dookie in the Pool of “IMSMART.”