Officials don’t know squat about kumquat
Driver shocked after state asks her to defend plate name
The name game started with Lori Ann Phillips’s first car, a red Toyota Camry.
A friend in high school said her first set of wheels needed an identity, a moniker to make it unique. Phillips decided on Peaches. Through high school and college in her home state of Pennsylvania — she cycled through two more vehicles, each with their own fruitthemed names: Mango was a maroon Jeep Wrangler; Papaya a white Ford F-150.
So when it came time to leave her hometown of Wilkes-Barre 12 years ago and venture to North Carolina, Phillips loaded her new Toyota RAV4 and pondered what tropical fruit she could appropriate next.
Eventually she stumbled upon the “little gems” of the citrus family, a fruit whose name was too quirky to pass up — Kumquat.
Then last week, Phillips got the letter: “This correspondence is in reference to the personalized license plate KUMQUAT,” Sherry Lee, a supervisor with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT), wrote. “We are in receipt of com- plaints stating that the plate is offensive and in poor taste.”
It gave her 30 days to craft a written statement explaining what the word Kumquat means to her. And if she didn’t, according to the letter, the DOT would revoke her plate. Phillips was dumbfounded. She had just returned from a vacation and was in no mood to defend her plate’s honour. In a fit of frustration, she vented on Facebook.
The tone of her post, Phillips said, went something like this: “Is this for real?” and “I can’t believe they sent this,” followed by “you’ve got to be kidding me” and “learn your fruits.”
Meanwhile, a friend and the editor of the Raleigh Agenda, an online news organization, asked whether he could tell her story. The Agenda called the DOT.
Lee, who penned the warning letter, said she must issue notices to any North Carolina driver who receives a complaint, no matter how silly or unfounded they might be.
The Agenda story published Aug. 31 and within hours the DOT had responded with a tweet: “#NCDMV verified a kumquat is in fact a fruit.”
At home, Phillips also received a voicemail message, telling her she need not take any more action.
“I was a little let down,” she said. “I was looking forward to the response.”