'Tofu' is Apparently a Dirty Word

I read this story from the The Denver Post earlier this morning and had a good laugh.

Tofu license plate too foul for Colo. DMV
A tofu lesson to learn: Mind your P's, Q's, F's and U's

By Tom McGee
The Denver Post

Kelley Coffman-Lee's plan to advertise her love of tofu on a license plate ran afoul of censors at the Division of Motor Vehicles.

The 38-year-old mother of three asked the DMV to approve a special plate emblazoned with "ILVTOFU" for her Suzuki SL-7.

It was not 2 B.

The agency turned down the request, saying the plate might be offensive to some people.

"My whole family is vegan, so tofu is like a staple for us. I was just going to have a cool license plate, and the DMV misinterpreted my message," the Centennial resident said.

It turns out that "FU" is on a long list of letter combinations barred by the division, said Mark Couch, spokesman for the Department of Revenue. Think of it as "Eff you," he said.

"We don't allow 'FU' because some people could read that as street language for sex," Couch said.

A committee meets periodically to update the list so that plates stay free of letters that abbreviate gang slang, drug terms or obscene phrases made popular in text messaging, Couch said.

Among the more than 200 examples of alphabet soup are obvious red flags such as PIG and KKK and head- scratchers such as BUB and HEN.

The rear of Coffman-Lee's vehicle is festooned with a multitude of bumper stickers that leave little question about her feelings on issues such as global warming and meat-eating.

As a vegan, she won't consume or wear anything that comes from an animal. "But it's not just about food. It is a philosophy of life. It means you have compassion for animals; it means that you don't want to see them performing or research done on them or them being eaten."

So far, Couch said, no carnivore has requested ILVMEAT.