The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Monday, June 4

Hi, people!

I sometimes can’t believe always open the Hoddle with an exclamation point. I’m not really that excited all the time.

Ramble of the Day

Today, I will write about the difficult to comprehend necessity of some car owners to personalize their license plates.

Now, I don’t spend a lot of time ogling at license plates, nor do I spend a lot of time thinking about license plates; after all, I don’t even have a car. However, I did spend a bit of time sitting in cars this weekend and gazing out the window, seeing silly license plates along the way.

Yesterday alone, I saw one that said BENS MOM, and naturally, I have some issues. If you’re going to go all that effort to make sure everyone knows you’re Ben’s mom, why not specify which Ben’s mom you are? Are you Ben Davies’s mom? (Probably not because she’d likely write MUM.) Are you Ben Affleck’s mom? Are you some random Ben’s mom? (Likely.) There are far too many people named Ben out there for you to leave it so ambiguous.

It’s not just random people that have personalized license plates. In a longer read about Jurgen Klinsmann from Sports Illustrated that I recommended a few weeks ago, apparently he has a personalized plate, also. The plates on the former Tottenham forward’s black Porsche SUV read FLYHELI, a way to tell everyone about the helicopter license he has.

I’m setting up to pass further judgments, but really, I just have questions. It’s possible that one of you has the answers, and I would be interested in them. The biggest question I have is: Why?

Why do these people feel the need to identify themselves, like this person with the license plate TONY P, through their cars? I don’t need to know who you are before I formally meet you, I promise. Your car doesn’t need to do the introducing.

For those that feel the need to share inspiration, like the person with the plate ACHIEVE that I saw this weekend, is that the best placement for it? I get having a post-it to remind you and encourage you every now and again, but a license plate? It certainly has not inspired me to achieve anything in the eight or so hours that have passed in between seeing it and writing this. Perhaps it has inspired others, though, which is why I ask.

Like many things, a personalized license plate just leaves me with so many questions.

tl;dr: Please explain to me why people personalize their license plates.

Links of the Day

Nicklas Bendtner will not go to the World Cup with Denmark after picking up a groin injury.

Mini transfer roundup: Wolverhampton Wanderers have added Benik Afobe and Willy Boly to their team; Huddersfield have signed goalkeeper Ben Hamer from Leicester

Dani Alves, Kaka, Mario Melchiot, Nuri Sahin, and Edwin van der Sar are all taking a course at Harvard Business School over the summer.

Today’s longer read: Martha Kelner interviews Eni Aluko on leaving Chelsea, covering the World Cup for ITV, and equality for The Guardian