There's no better way of coming out of an illness (the reason this writer wasn't around on Friday), then getting sent a great reply to a post we'd put up and surrounding a topic we've been interested in over the past couple of weeks (though one, also, we promise to stop talking about after today): the Texas license plate debacles, which you might recall we talked about here and here. The response to our posts were from the blog What's Driving You Crazy? which had a lot more to say about Texas license plates, showing that it hasn't just been this most recent outburst of attention, but that there's been controversy ever since George W. Bush and his pals took over the state, leading to the downfall of a good, honest license plate. It's a really interesting overview, particularly if you're like us and you retain a fondness for those older, more simple plates. Here's a bit:

That soon passed and then the design treachery moved into the picture. I should say pictures. The state flag plate was out. The Sesquicentennial Plate was out. The designers under Boy George Bush's reign came up with [the image to the right].

What is there to like about this plate? You've got a cowboy. OK, Texas has cowboys. You've got oil derricks (the kind we have not seen for decades); Texas has oil. You have the space shuttle. Uh? Ok, "Houston..." aka the Johnson Space Center is in Texas -- but the shuttle isn't. It's like on any given day you'd see a cowboy riding along by antique oil rigs with the shuttle overhead.