Daily Dirt: Great Plate leaders remain steady, but new entries crack the top 10

Daily Dirt for April 23, 2022

Is YADI LUV invincible? That plate has held top spot now for two months in our Great Plate rankings  … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 265 of The Daily Dirt.

1. The top five in our Great Plate rankings of 2022 hold steady from last week, but we have three new entrants in the top 10 license plates found across West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri.

Today marks the eighth straight week YADI LUV has held control of the No. 1 position. GOL D LOX (2 weeks) is the only other plate to be listed No. 1 since our venture started.

• 1. (1.) YADI LUV: Yadi fact o’ the week: He married his wife, Wanda, in 2007.
• 2. (2.) GOL D LOX: This fairy tale is now 185 years old.
• 3. (3.) TAXED: The country with the highest national income tax rate is The Netherlands at 52 percent, more than 12 percentage points higher than the U.S.
•  4. (4.) GO SING: The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson are the best-selling artists of all-time, according to statista.com. 
• 5. (5) SIR LAW: As long as SIR LAW remains in the rankings we’ll honor a lawyer or someone connected with jurisprudence. Today we tip our hat to Denny Woodworth.
• 6. (-) TAKE DA W: This HAS to be a coach’s car, specifically a baseball coach. I saw it parked outside the gate earlier this week at the Quincy Notre Dame-Pittsfield game.
• 7. (-) YIPPEIOKIA: This is compliments of a reader who spotted this South Dakota plate in downtown Quincy. If you’re confused, just sound it out.
• 8. (6.) PAT PAT 1: The first of four repetitive plates in the rankings. (Also see Nos. 16-18.)
• 9. (7.) BASIC: As opposed to complex?
• 10. (-) FERG BUG: Yes, these plates were on a Volkswagen.
• 11. (8) A-BAUM: For the record, Baum is a German surname meaning “tree”.
• 12. (9) ALOHA 37: Have you seen “NCIS Hawai’i” yet?
• 13. (10.) MEANCAT: In parts of Great Britain, a “moggy” is a domestic cat. Feel free to save this info for a trivia contest near you.
• 14. (11.) QUINCY: It’s 293 miles from Quincy, Ill., to Quincy, Ind.
• 15. (12.) TACO: The largest taco ever made, which stretched an entire city block, was put together in November 2019 in the Mexican state of Queretaro.
• 16. (13.) CAL GAL: Katy Perry and Gwen Stefani are arguably the most famous Cal(iforrnia) Gals.
• 17. (14.) PAL GAL: Calamity Jane was Wild Bill Hickok’s gal pal.
• 18. (15) CAN CAN 2: The can-can was first danced in the U.S. in 1867. You’re welcome.
• 19. (16.) PINK: Singer and entertainer Pink’s daughter is named Willow Sage.
• 20. (17.) OH DEER 4: If two deer were to be married, would the term “Deer-ly beloved” be used in the ceremony?
• 21. (20-tie.) ABC: The Jackson Five reached No. 1 with their “ABC” hit song in 1970.
• 22. (18.) OHH TAY 1: In 1839, an abbreviation craze was sweeping Boston. Charles Gordon Greene, editor of the Boston Morning Post, came up with an abbreviation — o.k. — which he indicated meant “all correct” if you didn’t know how to spell “all correct.”
• 23. (19.) U OF GA: Georgia has won 13 SEC football titles, second only to Alabama (29).
• 24. (-) NUM 10: I love this plate, largely because “10” is my favorite number.
• 25. (-) BOLT: A name? Some sort of social comment? This one has me confused.
• .No. 1 Rankings: YADI LUV (8 weeks), GOL D LOX (2 weeks).

2. The best of “Found on Facebook” this week:

• “Celery: When you have that sudden urge to bite into water with hair in it.”
• You can’t eat snacks while you sleep, so taking a nap is basically a diet.”
• “Diet tip: Eat food off other people’s plates. Those are their calories and don’t count.”
• “If you don’t use fast-food napkins as Kleenex in your car, you must be in a whole different tax bracket.”
• “When is a retiree’s bedtime? Two hours after falling asleep on the couch.”

3. Here’s a few more weird names of U.S. towns, and as always, thanks to readers for their contributions:

• Rough and Ready, Calif.: There is an actual street in this town of about 900 named To Hell and Back Lane.
  Accident, Md.: A person who lives in Accident is called an Accidental. I’m serious.
• Dummer, N.H.: I am told this New England town is popular with canoeists and kayakers.
• Aladdin, Wyo.: Population: 15.
• Bat Cave, N.C.: This small town is known as the home of the endangered Indiana bat.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — There is no way Steve will ever be visiting Aladdin, Wyo. He says everything he needs in this world is contained between the quadrants for Monroe City, Mo., Carthage, Ill., Edwardsville, Ill., and Ashland, Ohio.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. He got lost going to Columbia, Mo. while on assignment.