DRIVETIME MAHATMA: Next plates to start at AAA 00A

Dear Mahatma: I asked you a few years ago if the Department of Finance & Administration had decided on the new letters and numbers after the current sequence runs out. You said their reply was no, because there were plenty of numbers left. Surely they know now. -- Old Lew

Dear Lew: You have some kind of fantastic memory. That question and answer was, well, we don't know how many years ago. This column has gone on for almost 14 years, and that had to be at least a decade ago.

One of our favorite people in state government is Scott Hardin. He fields questions like this for DF&A, and he's always so cheerful. We, on the other hand, are currently grumpy, mostly because it's either too wet or too cold to play golf.

Hardin checked with the folks in the Motor Vehicle Division, who report there is about one year left until DF&A reaches the scenario described above. That is, 999 ZZZ.

(It would be cool to have that license plate.)

When the end is reached, DF&A will start with the next series, which will be three letters, two numbers and one letter.

That is, AAA 00A.

(It would be cool to have that license plate.)

. . .

On another topic, we have heard from Blaine A. Burgess, general manager and chief operating officer of The Country Club of Little Rock, regarding a Q&A here about golf carts driven on city streets in the Heights neighborhood.

Every couple of years a frustrated reader writes in to deplore that dangerous practice, which is illegal, and worries about the horrible possibility of a car-cart collision.

Burgess tells us he reminds his members, via club newsletter, of the dangers of cart traffic outside the gates of the club. He also tells us that the club does not allow any of its club-owned carts to leave the club's property. Neither does the club allow any unlicensed people to drive carts anywhere on its property, including the golf course.

To which we say, how sensible. Also: Fore!

. . .

On another topic, we have heard from an old friend and bookend, John Hall, regarding our reference last week to the great country song, "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," from which we quoted a lyric about old pickups.

Hall is smarter than we are, which is admittedly no great shakes. He told us that song, made famous in 1978 by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and the boys, was written by an Arkansan.

That fellow is William Edwin Bruce Jr., born in Keiser in 1939. He's better known as Ed Bruce.

Keiser, for the geographically challenged, is in Mississippi County, with Victoria to the north and Marie to the south.

Bruce wrote many other country hits, including one recorded by Tanya Tucker that may be the best country song title ever written: "The Man That Turned My Mama On."

Vanity plate seen at Homer's restaurant near the airport: LSNZPL8.

Fjfellone@gmail.com

Metro on 03/09/2019

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