License plates

I travelled up to Dartmouth College on Tuesday to give a seminar. It's just round the corner from Boston, being two and a half hours up the motorway. I hired a car from Budget, as I knew precisely where their depot is and I had learned from the mistakes of last time. I went for the "compact", as I wasn't sure whether the Dartmouth people would appreciate forking out for a V6 Hummer, but this turned out to be a pretty snazzy Pontiac. It was a step down from the Micra but, hey, beggars can't be choosers. Anyway, it goes without saying that I took a wrong turn almost immediately. I was heading north and had started on the north side of the river, but somehow I still managed to end up on the south side of the river heading south. Never mind, I eventually managed to find my way to the I93 and pointed the Pontiac in the right direction. The journey to Dartmouth College (which is in Hanover, New Hampshire) is meant to be very pretty and I was looking forward to it, but alas my view was spoiled by the fact that it chucked it down so hard for most of the way there that I could hardly see more than 20 yards in front of me. After an hour or so of motoring I crossed the state line into New Hampshire: "Live Free or Die!" This phrase, which sounds like the title of a James Bond movie (I saw the new one the other day - it's class, go and see it), is the motto of NH and is printed on NH license plates. Each state's license plates have a slogan, which may or may not be the state's official motto, and which may or may not be total rubbish. Here are some of the particularly bad examples from past or present plates:

Idaho: World Famous Potatoes (I mean, really. Is that the best you can do?)
Iowa: The Corn State (makes me want to go there, don't know about you)
Kentucky: It's That Friendly (my arse)
Maine: Vacationland ("we have no real industry")
Maryland: Drive Carefully (which is rather boring, but they do get extra points for their state tourism slogan: Maryland is for Crabs!)
Oklahoma: Is OK! (people got paid real money to come up with this)

The Massachusetts slogan is "The Spirit of America", which is also rather boring in my opinion. So I was thinking: perhaps we should do the same in the UK, but with counties? Maybe we should even have a competition, with the prize of a pint of English Pub Ale for the winner, on this very blog? Feel free to enter your, er, entries in this post's comments box and Em and I will judge a winner by the time I go home in December. Here are some examples to start you off:

Yorkshire: Anything Smaller is for Southerners
Lancashire: Mordor
Cornwall: Pastyland
Leicestershire: Cheese, Pies, and Maiming Foxes!
etc. etc.

Roll up, roll up.

Going back to "Live Free or Die!", I found it reasonably amusing to learn that in 1977 there was a court case between NH state and a fellow named George Maynard, in which Mr Maynard was accused of defacing his car's license plate. He had indeed done this: for religious reasons he'd cut off the words "or Die". According to Wikipedia: "The case drew widespread attention, partly because of the irony involved with a government trying to deny someone the freedom to change a motto that celebrates freedom."

I spent a pleasant day at Dartmouth College, which is quite large despite being located in a relatively small town. The architecture was mostly Harvard-like brick buildings, some of which were relatively venerable (the College had apparently been started by "King George", which I assume means George III) and my talk was well received, which is always nice. The journey back was in the dark - still no view then - and as I re-crossed the state line back into Mass I really noticed the change in the quality of the road surface. As the car crossed the boundary the asphalt turned from smooth tarmac to pothole-filled corrugation. I presume this just highlights how much of Massachusetts' transport budget has been swallowed up by the Big Dig over the past two decades. Needless to say, I got lost in Boston again but I eventually managed to navigate my way back with no bumps, scrapes, or even hoots. I took advantage of having a car to do as much heavy-item (i.e. beer) shopping as possible in one go.