The immense scale of Los Angeles boggles the mind. Sunday was forty miles of futile searching along Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards for either Fuddruckers listed in the April 2006 Yellow Pages. Both have since closed. Their corporate web site wasn’t helpful, or the location is employing a class-4 cloaking device. I just can’t find it. Sunday, I settled on a “Fatburger,” a very disappointing hunk of pseudoprotein. Last night, I biked to the In-And-Out near UCLA campus. (Okay burgers, fries were good and fresh.)
Monday morning started with a customer visit in Huntington Beach. The customer said budget an hour for travel that time of day. My coworkers were skeptical, suggesting I allot at least two hours each way. Or stay at a nearby hotel Sunday night. The customer was correct: travel time was 50 minutes plus an additional five-minutes to stop at the donut store for a toroidal breakfast.
The San Diego Freeway doesn’t actually go to San Diego, but does offer six lanes of highly-aggressive driving in each direction. It’s best enjoyed listening to Rimsky-Korsakov. Even at 5:45 a.m., it’s a jolt as drivers of all skill levels ply the roads. I’d hate to see what this is like during rush “hour.”
Along the way, I noticed the cars displayed a surprisingly limited number of personalized license plates. Sure, some employ parts of the Wingdings font — hearts, a star, a plus-sign, and a little hand — but there were no skulls, mailboxes, arrows, or clovers. (What’s up with that?) During the time I’ve been on the road, I’ve counted about a dozen different types. For comparison, Washington state has been issuing affinity plates like it was some kind of pyramid scheme. A good citizen might have his or her selection of the following designs (some, like Pearl Harbor Survivor, are obviously scrutinized more than, say, Southern Washington University):
| Civil/Armed services: | ||
| Army | ||
| Air Force | ||
| Amateur (Ham) Radio | ||
| Coast Guard | ||
| Law Enforcement Memorial | ||
| Marines | ||
| National Guard | ||
| Navy | ||
| Medal of Honor | ||
| Pearl Harbor Survivor | ||
| Professional Fire Fighter and Paramedics | ||
| Purple Heart | ||
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| Parks and Nature: | ||
| Endangered Wildlife | ||
| Washington Lighthouses | ||
| Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission | ||
| Washington’s National Parks | ||
| Washington’s Wildlife Collection – Bear | ||
| Washington’s Wildlife Collection – Deer | ||
| Washington’s Wildlife Collection – Eagle | ||
| Washington’s Wildlife Collection – Elk | ||
| Washington’s Wildlife Collection – Killer Whale | ||
| Wild on Washington | ||
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| Universities: | ||
| Central Washington U | ||
| Eastern Washington U | ||
| Evergreen State College | ||
| Gonzaga Alumni Association | ||
| U of Washington | ||
| Washington State U | ||
| Western Washington U | ||
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| Random | ||
| Collector vehicle | ||
| Helping Kids Speak | ||
| wt8p.com (just kidding) | ||
| Keep Kids Safe | ||
| Restored vehicle | ||
| Share the Road | ||
| Ski and Ride Washington | ||
| Square Dancer | ||
| Stadium (Mariners) | ||
| We Love Our Pets | ||
It seems excessive, but with technological advances, I think everyone can have their own affinity plate. I therefore challenge you, gentle surfer, to suggest areas that haven’t already been issued..