Semi serious

The prefix semi, often used with a dash, is very common in English usage. I understand it; it indicates partial. Notice for example I just employed a partial, semi-colon. A half colon. Marty gots good English skills.

So why doesn't this rule apply on the highways and bi-ways of our once proudly English speaking nation? I often pass trucks with trailers and the license plate on the back says semi trailer. But they're always full, complete, entire trailers! There's nothing half way about them.

Then there's what I believe the state of Maine has on their trailer licenses: semi permanent. So is the plate not permanent, not there all the time? Or is the entire truck subject to the whiles of some errant space time continuum thing, going in and out of existence? Because, I tell you what, they've never blipped out of our universe when driving past me, especially when it's raining heavily so that my van gets thoroughly drenched and my wipers can't keep up.

I mean, if we want the children of our country to learn English, we really need the consistent use of terms.

Improving your license plate bingo score

We've all played license plate bingo, right? When you're on a long road trip you try to see how many license plates you can spot from how many different states. On one trip when my family was young we saw plates from 47 states (we missed only Alaska, Hawaii, and Delaware) and 7 provinces of Canada. It's fun!

Now that I'm on the road a lot I play the game myself. I've notice some things which might help you do even better when you play license plate bingo. It all begins with paying attention to the trucks on the highway.

To begin with, you'll get Maine and Oklahoma rather easily. For whatever reason, probably registration fees I presume, an awful lot of truck trailers are plated either Maine or Oklahoma. While Oklahoma may be fairly easy to spot on cars, Maine isn't, being small and tucked away in the far northeast of the US. With this tip, it's an easy gain of one relatively hard to find state.

It's also easier to find various plates if you look for the name of the truck line. If a truck trailer is blue (although it may be white) and says WERNER, it's plated in Nebraska. If the trailer is white and says SAIA, it's from Louisiana. Heartland Express trucks are plated Mississippi. It works every time: see those trucks, you gain three states.

This works for Canadian provinces too. If a trailer says 'Moe's Trucking' it will have an Ontario plate. With Bourassa or Normandin, the plate will be Quebec. Spot Bison Trucking and you'll gain Manitoba. These work every time too.

And that's how you can gain several states or provinces easily when you play license plate bingo. But one more caveat. If at the top center of a plate you see spelled out U-T-A-H, all in capital letters, it's from Utah.

Now go play the game and enjoy these easy and exciting tips.