Whiffs found on Facebook

[TheChronicOne]

Harry Turtledove wrote an alternative-history novel about the aftermath of Pearl Harbor that was interesting. I think Newt Gingrich did too, and there might be a couple of others.

Wait, wait.... Newt Gingrinch wrote ... well, basically, "Fan-fic?" 

Yup. 1945 by Gingrich and Forstchen. Good concept, poorly written, deserved a sequel. Ejaculatory fan-fic galore - you have been warned  .

Premise: Hitler doesn't declare war on USA after Pearl Harbor, US focuses totally on stomping Japan in 3 years with all they have.
Europe turns into a stalemate as Germany bogs down in Russia and a ceasefire follows.
Germany decides to knock out the Manhattan Project before taking on the US in 1945 using the Wunderwaffe.
While the US is distracted the Nazi launch an uber Operation Sealion.
The Pentagon goes into overdrive working out how to move everything they have to Britain so they can fight back from Airstrip 1.

Today it would work quite well as a comic series in the style of Wunderwaffen or Jour J. As a serious book it sucks.

Ha!!! It's really not that bad of BS as a BS concept.  Interesting, thanks.

[Rick Lowe]

When using UK car service departments it's a total waste of time giving them all the details these days, I just say the registration number and they look it up on their all singing, all dancing computer system.

What people do who don't know their reggie I have NO idea.

Yeah, we have the same here and it gets a bit scary and Big Brother when all you have to do is quote the Rego and they can give you chapter and verse about your car... useful though, when you've just purchased said used vehicle.

Over here on this side of the pond, they just want the VIN number, I don't think they can use the registration like that here because it's the person who gets registered to drive the vehicle. When we buy a new vehicle, most times we transfer the registration to the new vehicle.

Sooo... it's YOU that has the Registration Number/Tag?  What happens if you don't currently have a vehicle - do they make you wear the plate around your neck? 

[kitnut617]

When using UK car service departments it's a total waste of time giving them all the details these days, I just say the registration number and they look it up on their all singing, all dancing computer system.

What people do who don't know their reggie I have NO idea.

Yeah, we have the same here and it gets a bit scary and Big Brother when all you have to do is quote the Rego and they can give you chapter and verse about your car... useful though, when you've just purchased said used vehicle.

Over here on this side of the pond, they just want the VIN number, I don't think they can use the registration like that here because it's the person who gets registered to drive the vehicle. When we buy a new vehicle, most times we transfer the registration to the new vehicle.

Sooo... it's YOU that has the Registration Number/Tag?  What happens if you don't currently have a vehicle - do they make you wear the plate around your neck? 

LMAO ---  no Rick, it just gets hung up in the garage. Got a few now like that (mostly from motorcycles though). My first reggie plate I got for my Goldwing was: 666606 -----      I could surrender them but you don't have to.

[TheChronicOne]

On that note, some registrations are even sought after and bought and sold. Low numbers, for instance. Single digits. 1,2,3 are for governmental use but something like a single "7" can command more than the vehicle it's being slapped on.

[Rick Lowe]

On that note, some registrations are even sought after and bought and sold. Low numbers, for instance. Single digits. 1,2,3 are for governmental use but something like a single "7" can command more than the vehicle it's being slapped on.

Yeah, some of the custom plates here can be worth go for a silly amount of money if someone particularly wants them. 

[TheChronicOne]

They can keep that crap. Although, I have entertained the thought of getting a custom "LOL WTF"  vanity plate if someone else in Oklahoma hasn't already.   

[scooter]

On that note, some registrations are even sought after and bought and sold. Low numbers, for instance. Single digits. 1,2,3 are for governmental use but something like a single "7" can command more than the vehicle it's being slapped on.

And, of course, every state (DC, PR, the USVI, etc) is different when it comes to license plates.  In NJ, for example, government vehicles have either MG (Municipal Govt'), CG (County Gov't), SG (State Gov't), non-municipal ambulances are now OE or OA, QQ is an historic vehicle, etc..

If I ever got a Tesla, I've got a vanity tag in mind already - NOPEC

[TheChronicOne]

Very good! 

[Rick Lowe]

 

[zenrat]

Why stand out?
A vanity plate increases the chance of a bystander remembering your rego if you should happen to do something naughty and drive off.

[TheChronicOne]

 

I just print out a false temporary dealer tag to tape over the real one. 

[PR19_Kit]

On that note, some registrations are even sought after and bought and sold. Low numbers, for instance. Single digits. 1,2,3 are for governmental use but something like a single "7" can command more than the vehicle it's being slapped on.

When I lived in Derby a woman in my street had 'R1' on a rubbishy old VW Passat Estate, and I told her the reggie was probably worth a fortune, LOADS more than the car itself, but she didn't believe me.

Some dealer offered her £5000 for the plate, this was in the early 80s mind you, and I told her to double it at least. Eventually she sold the reggie for £25000 and the car for £150! 

[TheChronicOne]

Ha!!!   Amazing!     Must have been hers or in her family for a long time, for her to think nothing of it like that, as opposed to someone who intentionally sought out that reg.

Sometimes people are sitting on small fortunes and don't even know it! Same sort of thing happens for currency. Sometimes I make a point to look at the serials on my notes...  things like consecutive numbers, repeats, and palindromes can turn a measly $1 into something considerably more valuable.

Funny how otherwise meaningless(relatively speaking) numbers can have such value, merely for existing. This type of thing goes for just about anything, too....  200 of an item are made? The first 10 are more valuable than the last 10 all other tings being equal... just because of that number. It borders nearly on superstition...   like not wanting a 13th floor in your building. Logically, it's hogwash, but since we assign these arbitrary values and meanings to these numbers, they take on a whole new life of their own. Humans are weird, man.   

[scooter]

Why stand out?
A vanity plate increases the chance of a bystander remembering your rego if you should happen to do something naughty and drive off.

Or it gets stolen.  SWMBO had some such variation of Warp Seven when she lived in the Philly 'Burbs.  Some moron stole it off her car.


Perhaps a mod ought to break this thread off...

[PR19_Kit]

   like not wanting a 13th floor in your building.

When I lived in Berlin in 1978 there was a MASSIVE building at the north end of the street where my flat was, Hohenzollendam to anyone who knows the city, which was the offices of the National Insurance scheme (I think.......) and its title, being German, was almost as long as the building was wide!

It also had a tower block built behind it which was a very odd shape, in that one floor was seemingly missing, and all you could see at that level was a thick column in the middle which housed the lift (elevator....) and other services. I asked my colleagues at work why this was so, and they said 'It's the 13 th floor level, so they didn't build the floor'!

All this was spoken with perfectly straight faces with no sense of irony at all, to them is was perfectly logical.