DAILY DIRT: ‘O TO BE 20’ crashes the Great Plate Debate party

Daily Dirt for Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025

That license plate reminded me of ESPN veteran Chris Berman’s old nickname for outfielder Oddibe McDowell. Anyone else remember when Berman would refer to him as “Oddibe Young Again” McDowell? … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,209 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Welcome aboard to O TO B 20.

We have a new member of the Great Plate Debate IV cast of medal winners. O TO B 20 has replaced SOLD in the bronze-medal position. The reigning gold and silver medalists have held their ground for another week: XQQQME and XCUSEUS, respectively.

The never-ending search for the most intriguing and creative license plates across West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri is a 24/7 job for the Daily Dirt Board of Control staff. In the 3-plus years of the Great Plate Debate, more than 1,500 different plates have been featured.

“We simply love what we do,” said T. Graham “Manny” Cardenas, the senior member of the Board of Control.

The current leaders:

Gold medal: XQQQME

Silver medal: XCUSEUS 

Bronze medal: O TO B 20-

This week’s best of the rest:

• SKATEY 8
• CAJUN
• U DIGG 2
• ICES 7
• ME N U 5
• 79 BOZ
• 62 SPUD
• 6 WATTS
• GRL PWR 5

2. Did you know (Part 282)

• That Darth Vader never said, “Luke, I am your father,” in 1980’s “Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back”.  Ol’ Darth actually said, “No I am your father”. (I stopped watching “Star Wars” flicks once they brought in those ewoks in the third film, “Return of the Jedi”.)
• That the evil queen in the original 1937 “Snow White” film never said, “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” but she did say, “Magic mirror on the wall”. For the true connoisseurs of the cinema, it should be noted “mirror mirror” was used in other versions of this story. So whichever side of the argument you are on, feel free to claim a victory.
• That Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s “Silence of the Lambs” never said, “Hello, Clarice”.
• That in 1998 Marvel offered to sell the movie rights to all of its characters to Sony for $25 million. Instead, Sony officials bought only Spider-Man for $10 million, saying “no one cares about any of the other Marvel characters”. Marvel movies have since made more than $29 billion at the box office.
• That actor Johnny Depp’s first movie role was in 1984’s “Nightmare On Elm Street,” due largely to director Wes Craven’s daughter having a massive crush on him. The rest, as they say, is history.

3. Here’s this week’s best of “Found on Facebook”:

• “I am fairly certain the person who decided to put that first “r” in “February” also decided how to spell “Wednesday”.
• “At a certain point, you have to face the fact you’ve turned into an old fart.”
• “First week working at the bicycle factory and they’ve already made me spokes person.”
• “Taylor Swift could perform live from my kitchen and I still wouldn’t go.”
• “Someone said Patrick Mahomes looks just like Darlene from ‘Roseanne’ and now I can’t unsee it.”

Steve Thought O’ The Day — I’ve been trying to figure out what the last year was I actually had to emerge from a recliner to change channels on the family TV set — by hand. I’m guessing the early 1980s? 

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. The Daily Dirt Board of Control members are not employees of MRN. They also don’t really exist.