Tuesday 25 September 2007

Four Dinks and You're Out


From the “Whatever happened to common sense?” file.. A man in Oregon named Mike Udink decided to personalize his auto plates seven years ago with his last name, so he got a vanity plate with Udink 1 on it. A couple of years later the family added wife Shelley’s license, Udink 2. And then only a couple of years ago when young son Kalei came of age, they got him a car and …. Yep, you guessed it, Udink3.

This year, another child ready to drive, the family added a fourth car, and Mike and Shelley applied for …YEP, Udink 4. But guess what? The state refused the license. It seems that the Dutch name Udink, is offensive to the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles. So offensive, in fact, that they are being ordered to turn in the “offensive” plates they have had for up to seven years!

"DINK has several derogatory meanings," Yvonne Bell, who sits on the Department of Motorvehicles panel that approves vanity plates, told the Daily Courier newspaper. She went on to add that the word can be treated as a verb, which gives it a sexual reference, and also can be a racial slur targeted at the Vietnamese, and then, to show she was “jiggy” with the urban lingo, states that the "U" in the front could be construed as "You." Wow, no wonder it went unnoticed for seven years. You have to admire those clever Nederlanders. And I thought Dink was a term for Yuppy couples from the 80’s, Double Income No Kids.

Ok, I teach in a high school, and honestly, I doubt there are three words in the unabridged dictionary that do not have some sort of sexual or derogatory reference. Given half a chance they can make something obscene out of EUK 347. I can imagine the straight faced official who walks out to tell Mr Udunk that he cannot have such an obscene name on his new “Hummer”. Perhaps wearing the new “fcuk” logo shirt his children gave him for his birthday. 
Just saw that Calfornia, it seems, does not know or care about the pejorative meanings of UDINK? This guy has 14 of them>>>>>>>
 

No comments: