By The Way...

Wednesday, November 16, 2005
8:49:00 AM EST
Hearing New York -- Madonna
What would you do if your randomly-assigned license plate coincidentally carried your name on it... and the number "666"?

Ken Hasenmueller says he doesn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about him, so he plans to trade in the licence plates assigned to his red Oldsmobile.

The number 666-KEN was randomly selected for his car by transportation officials.

"I thought that people might think I was Satanist," Hasenmueller said of the pairing of his first name with the number recognized as a symbol for the Antichrist. "I wouldn't want people thinking I was interested in that sort of thing."

Interestingly enough, something like this happened to me when I moved to Ohio a few years back. We had ordered a personalized plate for my wife's car, and until it came in, we were issued a temporary plate for the car. When the DMV people came with the plate, the first thing they said was that if I had an objection, that they could get me a new plate, and then they showed me the plate, which had the number "666" on it (but not my name).

I don't have a particular sensitivity to that particular number, so I said it would be fine, and they visibily relaxed. Apparently they'd had some difficulty assigning the plate. Nothing bad happened to me, my wife, or the car while we were using the plate, so if it was the devil's plate, he had other things he was tending to instead of us. Still, if the plate had "666-JON" on it, I would have, you know, given pause.

So: would you accept a plate with "666" on it?


Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

This entry has 18 comments: (Add your own)

• #18 Comment from lilysparadise 
  11/17/05 5:11 AM | Permalink

  Our entire province prohibits certain license plates to have numbers or letters that may be associated with certain things that people find "offensive", thus no one here can have GOD or 666 on their plates. . .among others.
• #17 Comment from psychfun 
  11/16/05 11:16 PM | Permalink

  Gee....maybe our plates should have banners on them for the state!
• #16 Comment from onemoretina 
  11/16/05 7:41 PM | Permalink

      Not superstitious about numbers, so the 666 wouldn't bother me.  However, when WE moved to Dayton, My husband was issued a plate with the letters 'DED' in it.  And my plate ?  It said 'KIL' .   Kinda scary .....    Tina   http://journals.aol.com/onemoretina/Ridealongwithme
• #15 Comment from salemslot9 
  11/16/05 7:13 PM | Permalink

  that would be so cool!
  I'm a christian, too
  some people take
  "The Omen" too seriously...hehe
• #14 Comment from vortexgirl 
  11/16/05 4:50 PM | Permalink

  At least I'm not the 13th comment.
  LOL
  Dianne

Show all comments (13 more)