Forgive me if I go off on a tangent aobut vanity plates, but for the past three days I've found myself on the highway behind a silver Ford Focus bearing plates reading GUGUDLZ.

The first time I saw it, I needed a moment to process what the words meant. I know, generally, that there's a band called the Goo Goo Dolls, but I don't listen to them, so for a second I read the word as "guh-guddles," which is much less MTV-friendly.

Half the challenge of coming up with a vanity plate is figuring out how to spell a pet phrase in seven letters or fewer. The other half is coming up with a concept that you absolutely must express to total strangers passing you on the highway. Bumper stickers just aren't enough of a commitment to these folks--they have to pay extra money for a plate to bolt onto their car that will signal how much they love the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or, more gratingly, how great their lives are. The latter concept is popular here in the land of self-congratulation. It's not enough to own a BMW, one must also order custom plates reading IM BETTR or I RULE or, worst of all, MY BMW. (In case the valet at the yacht club misses the big chrome "BMW" and the logos on the front and back, mistakes it for a Ford Taurus, and refuses to allow it in the club parking lot.)

Here are a few other concepts people have paid extra money to express to total strangers:

RUM N TAB

WE GAWLF

SPRGSTN

And my favorite, which I saw on a car badly in need of shocks, and covered with Bondo:

THONG [HEART]R

As he raced down the highway headed south, in each car he passed, people nodded in comprehension and thought, "That guy really, really, really loves thongs."

Star of the day. . .Stig