Dan-Inspired Personalized License Plates:

---

Dead Head	Conversion	Steely Dan Fan
Dancing Bear Bumper Sticker or Decal.	"Hornsby Fan On-Board" Suction Cup Window Sign	Steely Dan-inspired Personalized License Plate

Dead Heads plaster their vehicles with an assortment of stickers, decals and appliques. Tsk. Tsk. That's no way to treat a fine automobile or sport ute. Any Dan Fan can only scoff at marring the pristine finish of their classic late model performance car.

That's why I present the Dandom Living "Create a Personalized License Plate Page and Contest." Between now and October 15, 1997, and maybe beyond, I will award Steely Dan-related CDs (like the remastered MCA CDs, "Alive In America" and "GlenGarry Glenn Ross") to those who submit Steely Dan-inspired license plate suggestions to the Dandom Digest at dandom@mac.com If I roll on the floor in laughter, you win. In mid-October, we will have a vote by the readership of the Dandom Digest as to the best plate idea and that person will win one of those wacky prizes. Another random entrant will win, as will one random voter, just like the album essay contests.

In submitting your entry, it will also be helpful to explain your State, Province, territory or country rules and regulations on personalized or "vanity" license plates and how they affected your plate design. Usually, seven or eight characters is the maximum allowed and that ruled out a lot of others that we thought of that were even just one or two characters over the permitted limit. So if you go beyond sever or eight, you'll have to explain that the plate can really be ordered according to your local laws and regulations. Your local government probably has a web page for this sort of thing. The State of Illinois even let me order my Steely Dan peronsalized license plate right from the web, although I didn't get my first and second choices.

Of course, ultimately, it is our hope that these things show up on you vehicles, spreading the word and spirit of our favorite duo. But you may want to get another Dan Fan's opinion to see if they "get" your plate's message.

In mid-October, I hope to make a mini-tour to the Northeast USA; if you have any nifty Dan-related plates, let me know and I'll try and stop by to meet you and photograph your vehicle.

Finally, I don't know if I've talked this before, but I am sponsoring a guy named Stewart who was into the Dead scene but is now trying to cleanse himself of his decal and bumper sticker habit. Stewart has found it helpful to set up a web page to talk about his addiction and how he learned to cope thanks to Walter and Donald, in hopes it might inspire others to change. Please help him as you help yourself.

hoops!