DAILY DIRT: ‘RESQ 5’ moves on to Great Plate Debate IV medal stand

Daily Dirt for Saturday, July 26, 2025

DR FUNN lengthens reign atop rankings … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,354 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Another week, another set of entertaining license plates found while traveling across West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri.

The Great Plate Debate IV is more than halfway home on its journey to find this year’s most entertaining plate, and DR FUNN is proving to be a strong title threat. That plate has held the gold medal since May 29, covering a nine-week period that has seen it turn back all challengers. 

For those wondering, the Great Plate Debate record for holding No. 1 was BE A BETH, which owned the top spot for the final 26 weeks of 2023.

Joining the current cast of award winners this week is RESQ 5 with the bronze medal. (It took me a minute, too.)

I’m not predicting a major overhauling of the rankings or anything like that, but The Little Woman and I are planning a road trip this weekend (for us, that means a trip to Hannibal and/or Carthage) and she’ll be driving most of the time so I can keep an eye out for those license plates!

The current medal stand:

Gold medal: DR FUNN 

Silver medal: U BABE 1

Bronze medal: RESQ 5 (major points for originality)

Dropped out: TATTED

The best o’ the rest from the past week:

• TK GOD
• WAGZ FAM
• SS BAR 1
• SHA SHA 1
• BOLT
• 77 BOZ
• TROBL X 2
• CHUY
• BAJA 15
• W FLAG
• UNLOCK 3
• JAM
• PONYS 42
• NUT 3
• QCY LV 14
• RTE 66
• GO RACE 2
• CZ6 HOE
• JAM 27
• R CAT DOG

We enjoyed an active inbox this week. Thanks for all of the emails and texts. Keep those entries flowing in!

2. Did you know (Part 437)

That since it’s late July now, shouldn’t Walmart start putting out the Christmas stuff any day now?

That the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 on this date 50 years ago (1985) was “Every Time You Go Away” by Paul Young; the No. 1 song 50 years ago (1975) was “The Hustle” by Van McCoy; and the No. 1 song 60 years ago (1965) was “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones.

That the original choice to play Doc Holliday in “Tombstone” was Willem Dafoe, not Val Kilmer.

That if the government starts putting chips inside people, ask for Doritos.

That Paul Skenes has MLB’s lowest ERA through the first 44 starts of a pitcher’s career in the live-ball era (since 1920):

• Paul Skenes, 1.94
• Vida Blue, 1.97
• Jose Fernandez, 2.21
• Howie Pollet, 2.28
• Orel Hershiser, 2.29
• Dwight Gooden, 2.30

3. The best from this week’s “Found on Facebook”:

“Research shows that laughing for two minutes is basically the same as a 20-minute jog? So, now I’m sitting in the park laughing at all of those joggers.”

“The Steelers have the highest winning percentage (.603) since 1969, and in that time have had just three head coaches: Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin. The other 31 NFL franchises have had an average of 14 coaches each over that same span.”

“It amazes me how much ‘exercise’ and ‘extra fries’ sound alike.”

“If you watch ‘Jaws’ backward, it becomes a heartwarming story about a shark who gives arms and legs to people who need them,”

“You don’t know fear until the toilet refuses to flush at someone else’s house.”

Steve Thought O’ The Day — OK, so your fingers have finger tips, but your toes don’t have toetips? Yet, you can tiptoe but not tipfinger.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. He can tune a piano, but he can’t tuna fish.