Various and sundry Departments of Motor Vehicles about the country are quite fairly maligned for the mindless and steadfast application of rules by mindless and steadfast bureaucrats who don't understand the rules or the reasons for them. I remember an employee of the Social Security Administration giving a low whistle and a sympathetic look when I told him I next had some business at the DMV. Shoot, even other bureaucrats malign them. 
Anyway, you'd think in a small town where everybody knows everybody's business that you wouldn't have this problem. You'd be wrong. Adding information to the mix apparently doesn't solve the problem, but it does sometimes change the nature of it: instead of a mindless and steadfast application of rules, you might get a mindless and steadfast IN-application of the rules. The DMV is its own special Hell.Confused? Well, I recently tried to register my new used car, the Silver Surfer. Ashley, the previous owner, a long-time Walterboro resident, sold it to me, but didn't present the title because she had lost it and had ordered a new one. She presented to me a DMV official "bill of sale", which, according to the face of the document, I am supposed to present to the DMV for recording. I attempted to do so, and to get my registration. Lucky day! Only two cars outside the place! I stroll into the nearly empty building with my proof of insurance and my bill of sale and ask the clerk to hook me up. She looks at the document. "Oh, Ashley has already ordered the title. You don't need to do this", she says. "But I want to", I said. "Well, the title will be here in a few weeks and you'll have it then", she replies, as she sorts through the stack of Christmas cards she's evidently about to mail. "What if she doesn't give me the title? When I finance cars, I never get the title until it's paid off, and I always get a registration. I'll still need a registration", I point out. "She'll get the title to you. She's already ordered it". I look meekly into the dead air that surrounds the kiosk. "You're not going to let me record this bill of sale and you're not going to let me get a registration today, are you?". She straightened out the stack of mail on her desk. "No. Ashley's already ordered the title".
11 comments:
Reminds me of that scene in Trains, Planes and Automobiles. You know the one...
Neal Page goes on a tirade against a car rental agent and says "f*cking" 18 times in just over a minute. It ends with the agent replying, "You're f*cked."
Sound about right?
Yep.
I've been to hell I spell it, spell it DMV...Nice to be here, supadave. Water's just fine.
"going postal" is always an option.
DMV. Isn't that Latin for, like, 505? As opposed to DVD, which, I guess, would be 795. Help me out here, Rob.
Postal's about right, John.
That rental car agent was Mr. Rooney's secretary in Ferris' Bueller's Day Off.
Dave, sounds like you handled it in a good way. Just don't get a ticket between now and the time Ashely get's the title to you :)
IF Ashley gets me the title. But thanks.
Dave, sounds like the family trees are more like braided ropes in this town. Least they made it quite obvious which way the wind was blowing. No guess work. They could have always given ya the ol "Try again tomorrow, sir."
DMV=1505
DV=505
DVD=1005
MILD=1551
DM=1500
http://www.novaroma.org/via_romana/numbers.html
Yeah, wish I ould say that was memory. However, everyday I find old age and lunacy being more my spirit guides. Bet you wanted to hear that.
Now, Rob, here's (among many, many other things) what I don't get: I thought a rule of construction on Latin Numerals was that, where a smaller number follows a bigger number, you add them; where a bigger number follows a smaller number, you subtract them. E.g. VI = Five plus one is six; IV Five minus one is four. So DMV= One Thousand (M) minus Five hundred (D) plus Five (V) is 505. Am I on crack?
Gee Dave, you really want me airing dirty laundry like that in a public venue? Bit of a sharing violation, ya think? ;)
But anyway, I think what you are running into is that subtraction within a single number is only used to repressent numbers that are not directly represented by a numeric symbol. For instance, if you wanted to write 500, you would use no addition or subtraction since there is a perfectly servicable symbol for it, "D". Your particular method WOULD result in a subraction given order, except that there is no need. So, somone reading your number would do the only other thing you CAN do with a multi-digit Roman Numeral; add it all up to produce a number. I would think that the order presented would indicate some kind of an issue to someone experienced with working with higher-value Roman Numerals (it IS out of order for addition) but that's not me.
Well, that makes sense. Guess I'll have to give up the crack.
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