Ramblings

Bloviating: to you, from me. Chide me if you will. algot@runeman.org

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Mon, 07 Sep 2009

Plate Progress

In another section of this Web site, I am doing a photo "collection" of the licence plates of the United States. Yes, it is a nearly mindless pastime. I drive around parking lots near my house looking for cars with plates I don't have. I live just a little over a mile from the renamed Natick Mall (now the "Natick Collection"). The next mall along Route 9 is Shoppers' World. I believe it was the second mall in the U.S. Even though retailers complain that they aren't making money now, the parking lots are pretty full.

I started in January (the 3rd) and, as of today, September 7th, I have only 9 US plates to go. I wonder if I'll get them all by the end of the year. The "long tail" effect should reduce that possibility. Long tail refers to the least likely events at the ends of the famous bell curve or "normal distribution" in statistics. The belly of the bell curve is tall because the frequency of events in it are larger than the frequency of the events at the tails.

Some random observations:

• I live in Massachusetts.
• Massachusetts plates are the ones I see most. (DUH!)
• I see a bunch of Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine...no surprise as they border Massachusetts, or almost in Maine's case. I bet some of them are working at the malls. (I know some Rhode Island plates represent workers. I see the same plates at the same lot almost any day I go.
• I am a bit more surprised by seeing many New Jersey plates. It's a long drive to go shopping.
• Florida plates are no surprise at all. I bet many plates are from semi-retired "commuters" who split the year between MA and FL.
• Georgia has been much more common than I expected, same with Ohio.
• I've seen California often, Colorado several times, Illinois a bunch.
• I wonder if Hawaii will be the last one I don't have. I have Alaska, but a person can drive the whole way. A boat or plane should need to be involved for the Hawaii plate.
• My biggest wonder is about West Virgina. I see Virginia plates often and have run into DC, Delaware, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, etc. so it isn't too "far". But WV is a relatively small state (ranked #37) and maybe its citizens prefer to stay away from Massachusetts.

Today is Labor Day. College students are returning to the many colleges in Massachusetts, and the malls are popular with everybody, even college students. I got four plates I didn't have today. Actually there were three from the US and one from the state of Nuevo Leon in Mexico. I think I'll be able to reduce my "smissing" list with the college students back and buying "stuff" for their dorm rooms.

Nine to go!

For what it's worth, the ones I need are: Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, West Virginia, Wyoming.

And, the saddest thing. My son bought me a pocket camera (Casio Exilim) to make catching the images easier, and I forgot it at home when my wife and I went to visit his family one evening. At three consecutive red lights I was behind a car from Idaho...and wasn't able to get the photo. RATS!



posted at: 15:59 | path: | permanent link to this entry