Hello: I wrote to you back in March. Thankfully, that section of bad pavement on Kanis Road has been redone and is now very smooth. Please pass along to your city contact that all of us drivers appreciate the new smooth road. -- D.W.
Dear Reader: You and others wrote about this problem on Kanis Road around the Lowe's and Gamble Road. The city, via Public Works chief Jon Honeywell, assured us the contractor would be back to fix it.
It's only fair to pass along the compliment after the resolution of the complaint.
Dear Mahatma: Has anyone kept a record of how many extended middle fingers are displayed in traffic circles? -- LOL
Dear Comedian: Ha! Our own "research" resulted in reading something about road rage from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
Road rage, the agency said, could include shouts, excessive use of a horn or obscene gestures. And worse.
"Research indicates that being in a state of rage can affect your blood pressure and your ability to reason and make decisions. As a driver, you will make more errors. The chance of being in a traffic crash will increase."
This sounds like golf. The madder you get, the worse you play.
Our own research includes an experience with a traffic circle in Washington, D.C., which eventually led us to the public parking lot at Arlington National Cemetery. We poorly navigated this traffic circle, and were honked at.
How did we respond? By trying harder.
Once upon a time, this newspaper had a feature writer, Ron Wolfe. He was as good as writers get.
One of his regular duties was a weekly short about a vanity plate. He'd have one that was interesting, and would call the Office of Motor Vehicles to ask for the identity of the plate holder. Then he'd call that person for a chat.
Then Congress intervened. It passed, back in 1994, the Drivers Privacy Protection Act, under which personal information about an individual's motor vehicle record was prohibited from release. There are exceptions and exemptions, 14 in fact, but a newspaper reporter can't simply call up a state agency for personal information about a licensed driver.
One of the law's origins was the murder in California of Rebecca Schaeffer, an actress killed by a stalker who found her address via DMV records.
This column includes many vanity plates -- readers love them -- without further information. To be fair, so many plates are out there now we'd be overwhelmed.
Now to this vanity plate: STNKRS.
The plate belongs to Cara Fullerton of Valley Springs in Boone County. So reports her daughter, Cindy Harkey of Little Rock, a subscriber to this newspaper. May that tribe, subscribers, increase.
STNKRS translates to Cara Fullerton's grandkids in the order they were born. Stewart. Thomas. Nathan. Kirby Ruth.
Cindy Harkey sent along a photo of these young adults posing with the plate.
May their tribe increase as well.
Vanity plate on a Honda Pilot: NANUBER.
Fjfellone@gmail.com