When Whitney Calk sought a personalised license plate from a US
state agency to tout her vegetarian ideals, she was annoyed when she was
told no. Turns out the letters ILVTOFU can be construed to mean more
than enjoying bean curd.
"When I see T-O-F-U, I see tofu," says Calk, who requested the
so-called vanity plate from the Tennessee Department of Revenue last
September.
"I can't control the way anyone else interprets that," said Calk,
26, an animal rights activist from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
The dilemma faced by Tennessee authorities last year is not unusual,
as officials at motor vehicle agencies consider hundreds of thousands
of personalised plate requests each year. There are an estimated nine
million personalised license plates in the United States.
The vast majority of the requests are not objectionable, but
thousands provide insight not only into the boundaries of free speech
but the amount of human ingenuity expended to display seven and eight
character insults, sexual references and descriptions of bodily
functions to other motorists.
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