THE phrase that came to his mind was evocative, to the point, and in perfect conformity with the eight-figure character as allowed by the Custom Plate Unit of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. His muse had surely blessed him, he thought; it seemed that he had achieved a kind of license plate haiku. He typed in his phrase, sent it to the department's online service, and imagined the day when he would join the ranks of anonymous poets whose license plate musings linger in the thoughts of readers for a moment or for an hour, depending on...