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John and Sharon Lamont have a two-person Western music band named Rydin' High, and since 1990 they have sported a vanity license plate, "Rydn Hi," to promote the duo.
They had that plate in Utah in the 1990s, then moved to California, where they got the same vanity plate.
Recently, the couple moved back to the Beehive State and applied again for the "Rydn Hi" vanity plate.
They were denied by the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles on grounds that "Rydn Hi" refers to drug use.
Their band, they say, sings Roy Rogers-type music and the name exemplifies their dream of riding free and undeterred on the range.
The denial comes about the same time Vietnam veteran Arnold Breitenbach applied for a vanity plate sporting "CIB-69," representing the Combat Infantryman's Badge that the St. George resident received and the year he was awarded the Purple Heart.
The DMV said no because the number 69 has sexual connotations.
Several years ago I wrote about a Utahn whose request for "MERLOT" was denied because it was the name of a wine. After that denial, he noticed vanity plates with "GUNMAN," "IHATEU" and "AK47."
Another plate spotted on the road carried "COLT 45," probably OK because it, too, is the name of the gun — a perfectly suitable message, apparently, in Utah. What presumably got by the censors was that it also is the name of a malt liquor.
Another Utahn was denied a license plate that simply said "X" because the bureaucrats said that was a nickname for the illegal drug Ecstasy. He then noticed a vanity plate on the road with the letters "PUREXTC."
The owner of a black Corvette tried to get the vanity plate "BLKVLVT." No way. Black Velvet is a whisky. The motorist then saw a plate with "DUBIE" even though "doobie" is slang for a marijuana joint.
The Lamonts have appealed the denial. A hearing is set for Thursday before an administrative law judge at the Utah Tax Commission in Salt Lake City.
Speaking of doobies • The 1970s iconic rock 'n' roll band the Doobie Brothers is coming to the Sandy Amphitheater on June 10 as part of nationwide tour.
Wonder how many Utah lawmakers will be rocking along.
Of the two dozen or so state symbols the Legislature has officially designated — including a cooking pot, a firearm, a fruit and a grass — is the official star: "Dubhe."
This heavenly body, named after its discoverer, is part of the Big Dipper. Though spelled differently, it is pronounced the same as doobie.