The Idle Pen - The Andrew Turnbull License Plate Gallery

5-30-2009: Plenty to Read

Is more better? Perhaps I shouldn't have asked...

I recently acquired this extensive collection of back issues of the Automobile License Plate Collectors' Association newsletter from a Nova Scotia club member (Ain't the Internet great?); the earliest being the "Dr. Roy Klotz Uncovers Unique 1913 Mississippi" issue of October 1985. With the exception of only two dates, I now own literally every club newsletter and magazine back to the day I was born...a mountainous treasure trove of technical information to keep on hand, in any case!

While reading through the newsletters one at a time, it was a bit fun to witness how the layout and content presentation changed as time went on: The masthead on the front cover consistently morphed into something new whenever a different editor took the helm. (You can probably tell where the "cutoff points" between the Paul Maginnity, Thomas Boyd, Rich Dragon, and Tim Stentiford eras lie from the image above alone.) The overall presentation changed little from 1985 to 1999; aside from the gradual creep of more pictures into what was once an almost-overbearingly text-centered publication. The layout improved and the covers began being printed in color when Mr. Dragon took the helm in 2000. Mr. Stentiford added still more color in 2004 (culminating in the switch to a full-color magazine in 2007) and elevated the graphic layout and typesetting to levels so slick and professional that any successor will no doubt have some very big shoes to fill! In spite of that, the slightly more roughly-hewned but content-rich Dragon incarnation tends to be my favorite of the magazine.

What, specifically, did I gain from obtaining these newsletters and magazines; aside from a deficit of free space on my bookshelf? Technical articles by Scott Broady, Eric Tanner, and others ranging from topics like weight codes to cleaning plates to the implementations of staggered registration nationwide. Dozens of color photospreads. Periodic bits of news and updates pertaining to changes in plate design and vehicle registration procedures; set in the time and context in which they happened. In-depth features on various jurisdictions: Frankly, I feel the whole shelf of magazines would be worth keeping on hand for the April 2001 Wisconsin article alone!

After reading twenty years' worth of publications, I can only imagine what changes and developments will occur to it in the next 20 years: Will it be as thick as a book? Will it have 3D holographic pages? Will it be reduced to an electronic microchip? It's hard to tell...but it will be interesting to see how the ALPCA Newsletter (or ALPCA Register, or Plates, or whatever moniker the next editor in line will come up next) will continue to develop and evolve.

(Meanwhile, if anyone happens to have an extra June 1986 or August 1985 newsletter on hand, feel free to let me know about it...)

5-25-2009: Welcome!

Today marks the second or third attempt I've made in engaging myself in a license plate commentary site during the last few years.

In the past, I tried to go for a simple approach: Static, individual pages in the spirit of Jon Upton; who pioneered license plate hobby commentary online twelve years ago. It could have worked...but unfortunately, the hassles in dealing with fully-formatted pages for each entry eventually caused me to lose enthusiasm with the project.

In an ideal world, I would have written my own content-management system from scratch after that...but unfortunately, I know too little about server-side technologies to even dream of doing that venture. So, I resorted to plan B.

Like my Web Journal, the new Idle Pen is based on a severely hacked and cut-down version of PolkaDot; a simple PHP-based weblog system devised by one of my various online acquaintances. It may not be perfect (and I broke the RSS generator in the midst of my modifications), but it gets the job done with reasonable ease, flexibility, and minimal overhead.

Lately, my license plate interest has perked once again. I have a number of upcoming projects out of that vein up my sleeve, so I felt that there was no better time than now to bring the Idle Pen back. Some of the content I'll post will be short; some of the pieces will be long. I'm not sure how often I'll update the site, but you can count on me doing so more frequently and regularly than before.

See you soon!

5-25-2009: Older links

Links to static pages from older incarnations of the Idle Pen, parked here for convenience:

Accounts of license plate collectors' meets:
Editorials and other commentary:
- 8-7-2008: Survivors
- 6-16-2008: Wisconsin and the Art of Gradual Replacement
- 3-31-2008: Mired in Messages
- 1-9-2008: Personalize This!
- 4-7-2007: A Look at Numbering
- 2-10-2007: Michigan Madness
- 5-15-2006: Website URLs on License Plates: A Link Too Far