DAILY DIRT: XQQQME opens the competition atop Great Plate Debate IV

January 7, 2025 | By Steve Eighinger, Muddy River News Minister of Culture and Doctor of Love

Daily Dirt for Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025

It’s probably a good thing Illinois and Missouri don’t have “ugly laws,” as you’ll read about in thought No. 2 … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,166 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Here we go again.

The Great Plate Debate IV is now officially underway. Which personalized license plate in either West-Central Illinois or Northeast Missouri will wear the 2025 crown of being the most creative 12 months from now? The road is long and the journey arduous, but in the end I’m certain we’ll have another worthy champion.

Here’s our first-week medal stand of the new year:

Gold medal: XQQQME (Maybe a Steve Martin fan from a long time ago? This was spotted by a reader on Broadway near the 36th Street interchange.)

Silver medal: GA DAWG (Sorry you’re favorite college football team is out of the playoffs)

Bronze medal: BE HAP E 2 (A Bobby McFerrin tribute?)

Best of the rest

KATHY (solely in honor of my wife, a.k.a. The Luckiest Woman on the Face of the Earth)
INWATER
PB4WEGO (This was submitted by another loyal reader, but the plate is outside our circulation area, so we’re just passing it along from the goodness of our heart.)
VIC MIC
T B LADY
RHR RAH
DIPI
LUVPINK
BRAT 72

Just as a reminder, these were our past winners — who will join this list in 2025?

2024: DR LOV (held No. 1 final 9 weeks of year) Illinois plate

2023: BE A BETH (held No. 1 final 26 weeks of year) Illinois plate

2022: IMDUMB (held No. 1 final 10 weeks of year) Missouri plate

2. Did you know (Part 239)

That the average American spends about 90 percent of his/her time indoors. (I’m probably closer to 95-98 percent.)
That the average person will spend the equivalent of a full year during their life looking for misplaced items.
That some cities in the U.S. used to have “ugly laws” and would fine people from $1 to $50 for their bad looks. Some of these laws were still on the books in the early 1970s, the last reportedly being removed in 1974 — in Chicago, Ill.
That 23 percent of the students at the Mississippi University for Women are men.
That James Buchanan is the only U.S. president who was not married.

3. This week we wish a happy birthday to the following celebrities:

Oscar-winning actor and overall strange dude Nicolas Cage turns 61 today.
Also today, former network newswoman Katie Couric celebrates No. 68. Couric was the first solo female anchor on a major network.
Country superstar Crystal Gayle will be 74 Thursday. She still makes my brown eyes blue.
Rod Stewart, truly the world’s gift to music, turns 80 on Friday. Wake up, Maggie, I think he has something to say to you.
Shock jock Howard Stern will be 71 on Sunday.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — The countdown is officially underway. It’s 33 days until the first pitchers and catchers start reporting to Florida and Arizona. The winter is almost over!