NOHOMISH COUNTY - Michael Syravong has a very fast car and he wanted his Toyota Supra to have a suped up name.
So, on his license plate application he wrote GOT MILF. And he got it.
"Yeah I just thought it sounded funny," said Syravong. "Like 'Got Milk' and the term MILF was getting popular so - GOTMILF, I really didn't think about it."
To be honest, he had thought about it and it had nothing to do with Got Milk.
It had everything to do with lingo from the movie American Pie. It is, in the most delicate of descriptions, a newly coined noun: a lustful term of endearment, he admits, for someone's mom.
"MILF is an attractive mother," he said.
But in the nearly two years he had the plate on his car at least two mothers didn't find it attractive.
Emails of disgust rolled into the Department of Licensing. The women wrote that they found it offensive and not humorous at all. After months of review the plate was officially canceled.
"Yeah, I was a bit surprised, shocked, that someone would stoop that low to ruin my fun," he said.
As for the fun others didn't find so funny, Syravong claimed on the original application that maybe it meant "Manual Inline Lift Fluctuator." He admits he just made that up.
Documents uncovered by the Web site thesmokinggun.com show the Department of Licensing suggested that might make him guilty of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant: a gross misdemeanor.
In his attempt to keep the plate he offered several possible variations including "Got My Invitation Last Friday." He even said it might mean "Got Married Into Lisa's Family."
He got the plate the same week as his and Lisa's wedding. And how did that go?
"Not very well," he told us. "My wife almost called off the wedding."
Now that his attempt at humor as been called off he's replaced the personalized plate with another one.
Now it says "Punisher." He says that means he wins a lot on the race track. But as for stating on the record what MILF really means, that he wouldn't do.
"I'm probably showing this (interview) to my wife's mom so I probably don't want to say that."
The strangely ironic thing to me is that the lack of a question mark on license plates transforms the saying into a statement. Freudian slip identifies Oedipus complex...
edit: yeah, I know it's not really a fredian slip...
if only a movie could popularize a more politically correct version such as "MILTHSW", Mom Id like to have sex with maybe they would be happy =P
There are many things that happen on the road or that people put on their cars that make me angry and aggresive and make me honk in disapproval but those people sending emails are just taking it too far. I dont see how they had any right to change that even if they did find it offensive.
As just kind of an explanation, I had considered getting a specialized plate this year (ended up not), and there is definately a clause about ensuring the plate is non-sexual in nature (probably something about non-offensive, but maybe not because it could be too broad?). I don't have the papers anymore, though.
When I looked into it in NJ (years ago) I recall a bit about no profanity and nothing that would translate into profanity. Considering how overt they were about erring on the side of caution, I doubt "Mom I'd like to @#%$" would be a legal plate, abbreviated or not.
(Although personally I prefer when stuff like that slips through the cracks. )
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