Why I Oughta...

We popped down to Wally's Gas Station (our version of Buc-ee's on I-55 near Bloomington) and I nocied this magnet display that included a Wally's-branded magnet in the design of our old, blue-topped State of Illinois license plates.  These were the plates that I grew-up with and feel quite a bit more iconic that the ones we currently have in Illinois. This is what we have now - below.  It has half-an-Abe on the left, shows the Sears Tower and the State of Illinois Capitol dome.  There appears to be a windmill in the middle to represent our agricultural base.   But, they stink.   Why can't we have the blue-topped ones back?  There are literally DOZENS of special plates you see on the road.  University ones.  Charity ones.   Why not a vintage Illinois one?  Come on, Alexi .  Stop trying to put points on the board with the silly book-banning stuff and focus on the job that matters most as the Secretary of State:  Dr...

We were out and about when I parked the van next to a normal-looking car.  But, the license plate was anything *but* normal-looking.  It was a diplomatic license plate.  What do I mean?  Instead of having a state listed on it, it instead read: CONSUL.  And had a seal in the top left from the US Department of State.  Here is a photo of it below.   Note...I'm posting a photo of a license plate that I normally would blur out, but since the photo doesn't show the vehicle, nor am I stating the location, I feel pretty good about sharing this photo.  Kinda cool, right?  I went online to figure out what the story is/was with the plate and I turned up at this tool from Quartz:  a Diplomatic License Plate Decoder .  Pop in the plate number and you discover this is from a Japanese diplomat.  And...based on the location, that *totally* makes sense. From Quartz's tool: I learned something today.  What do they say?  Get smarte...