New license plates: What were they thinking?
Could this be what they had in mind?
While Americans were surprised that the underdog won in Wednesday night's American Idol finalé, Nebraskans were absolutely nonplussed about the winning design for the state's new license plate.
The top Internet vote-getter is just as boring as most Interstate 80 drivers mistakenly think the state is, with black fading to gray and "Nebraska" twice, once in red as part of a Web site and the other, well, apparently there to make the plate readable when cars have rolled onto their sides after the driver has swerved to avoid a deer.
To be fair, the winning plate beat out three other "been there, done that" designs little better than the current covered wagon version -- does Nebraska always have to be known for people trying to get somewhere else?
The state swears the winning design had nothing to do with a college humor Web site's campaign to punk Nebraska by having visitors pick the most boring design.
The fading-gray design received 38 percent of about 109,000 online votes cast.
Now comes word that the State Patrol is using a mobile grocery scanner-type device to zap the license plates of every passing car with an infrared beam and use the information to find out if the vehicle is stolen, if its registration is up-to-date or if the driver is wanted.
The state has only two of the $20,000 machines, which it is using in Lincoln and Omaha, but probably will buy more as more troopers are trained to use them.
In hindsight, the new design does look like something designed to make for an easier trip through the checkout line.
Perhaps the next design should just be a big bar code ...