Dear Mahatma: I guarantee 1937 was not the year Arkansas put photos on a driver's license. In 1973 my wife and I sold Bible books in North Carolina and were asked by a potential buyer to show our driver's licenses. She thought we were underage. Our licenses at the time were printed on unlaminated paper with the shape of Arkansas on a blue background, but no picture. Perhaps a fat-fingered '73? -- M
Dear M: Last week's column consisted of three elements. The first was a Q&A about pictures on driver's licenses in Arkansas. The last was a vanity plate. The one in the middle was the best, because unlike the others it was right. We hope.
On the bright side, we haven't had this many emails in years.
Here's what happened, in chronological order.
First, someone asked when pictures came to driver's licenses.
Second, we asked the Department of Finance and Administration.
Third, we got an answer from the always helpful people at the department.
Fourth, we fell down, banged our head on a rock while swinging a driver at the eighth tee at Burns Park, and misunderstood the answer.
Consequently, a bunch of people like M wrote in. They called us a goober. They were right. Although we resent the suggestion that our fingers are fat.
One reader distinctly remembered that while living in Blytheville in the 1960s he had to "borrow one from someone older and with similar physical features as you to use as your own for whatever reason you need to do this."
Ha! We think the "whatever reason" was to buy beer.
Another reader specifically remembered being refused entry to a nightclub in La Jolla, Calif., because his license had no photo. Serves you right, we say, because nothing good happens in nightclubs in La Jolla. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
John Theis, assistant revenue commissioner at the finance department and an occasional source for this column, set us straight. He was nice about it, too.
Theis said one of the agency's older employees read the column and produced his original 1966 driver's license -- no photo. After which the serious investigation began.
Turns out the 1937 act we cited last week required a photo only for chauffeur's licenses.
Move along to 1977, and Act 311, which Theis said was the first mention he could find in state law specifically requiring a photo on a regular license.
At the very end of his email, Theis said we were a goober. No -- he didn't. But we think he thought it.
On to the other calamity, the vanity plate BEZENGA. No clue on this one, we said.
You goober, numerous readers responded.
That word, mostly spelled bazinga, is the catch phrase for Sheldon, a character on the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
In our defense, we mostly watch sports.
Our flogging has been scheduled for Wednesday in the morgue. Yes, the morgue, an old newspaper term for the place where old clippings are kept. Also the whips.
Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 06/04/2016