Friday, 7/19

I get to be a dork all next week.

Okay; right now, I know a bunch of you are yelling out “is there a week when you're NOT a dork”? And you'd probably be right. But next week I carry my dork-dom to the ultimate extreme with my annual Art on the Rocks week habit of looking at license plates.

Yes, I need help. What's your point?

For those of you who haven't been reading these forever, let me explain about the ultimate in dork-dom. For over 20 years now, during the week preceding Art on the Rocks, I carry a notepad and pen around with me, and I write down every single state for which I see a license plate. I don't know how this started or why I keep doing it, but I do. It's not like the world would stop revolving on its axis if I didn't count the plates, but you wouldn't want me to risk it, would you?

That's okay. And you're welcome.

I have been able to notice a few trends after all these years. Each year you can usually tell in which states Marquette has gotten favorable publicity or a nice newspaper write-up, because you suddenly see multiple plates from a state that in the past has only shown up once or twice. And you can also tell the relative state of the US economy by how many different plates you see. Back in 2008, when the Great Recession was hitting, I only saw plates from 17 different states last week. Last year, with the US economy doing very well, I saw 42 different states (plus a few Canadian provinces). I'm assuming there's a correlation there, and although the economy is starting to show signs of slowing down I'm guessing I'll see 40 or so again this year.

If not; well, let's hope it was just coincidence and not correlation, right?

So if you see me about next week with my head swiveling around every time a car passes by, don't worry. I haven't come down with anything aside from a severe case of dork-dom. I'll just be looking at every single license plate I see, and checking to make sure it's on the list I'll be carrying with me every single place I go.

Well...SOMEONE has to do it, right?

8-)

Have yourself a great weekend. Enjoy Hiawatha if you're headed there!

(jim@wmqt.com)