In case you haven't heard, the state of North Carolina needs money. Roads are falling apart, parks are left unkempt, prisoners are being released, and public school cafeterias can no longer afford to put anything surprising in their Chef's Surprise.

In order to help assuage the crisis, and in my most altruistic act since filling a rental car with Premium*, I gave the NC Division of Motor Vehicles an extra $30 to get myself a personalized plate (shown here from the actual DMV website):

The way I had it figured, what better way could there be to promote this blog and spread the word about all that is wrong in forecasting. The DMV website took my application, my credit card was charged, and all I had to do was wait for the friendly gentlemen in the NC state prison system to stamp out my plate and put it in the mail.

Apparently I figured wrong. Either they have released all the prisoners who know how to run the license plate machines, or the folks at the DMV are spending way too much time reading urbandictionary.com. Instead of getting my new plate, I received this:

DEAR MR. GILLILAND:
PERSONALIZED LICENSE PLATE THE BFD WAS ORDERED FOR YOU IN ERROR. THIS PLATE MAY BE CONSIDERED IN POOR TASTE AND THEREFORE CANNOT BE ISSUED.

WTF? (Which, by the way, was issued on 9,999 license plates across the state in 2008.) I don't know what they could have possibly found in poor taste about THE BFD. I immediately appealed, even providing a link to this blog, The Business Forecasting Deal, to show them what an important public service is being provided.

Anyway, if you'd like to help the just cause of THE BFD, please write in support of my appeal to:

Kay Hatcher
North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles - Special License Unit
3155 Mail Service Center Division
Raleigh, NC 27966-3155

or email to: khatcher@ncdot.gov