Vanity Plate Critic Clearly Not a Spinal Tap Fan

Of all the vanity-plate hullabaloo in the press lately, this story out of Washington state might be the best: Tony Cava was alerted to the fact that someone found his "GOES211" plate "vulgar, profane, or offensive to good taste and decency." As the Seattle Times reports, the complaint left him "befuddled." The 53-year-old's choice was a tribute to fictional band Spinal Tap, who in the mockumentary that followed them explained that their amps go not to 10 but 11. Johnny Dixon apparently had something else in mind.

In an email to the Department of Licensing, Dixon complained: "I find it in poor taste that the great state of Washington would issue a plate that allows a driver to insinuate in public that his penis grows to 11 inches in length." That was enough to propel the plate in front of the Personalized License Plate Committee, which ruled—with a dose of humor—the plate was OK. "The complaint was, pardon my pun, a stretch," said a rep for the committee. It has also given the greenlight to ELKNUT, but ix-nayed FUBAR. (More vanity plates stories.)