Published: April 18, 2008 07:06 pm            

Show me the hyphen!

O

JOPLIN, Mo. — Andrew Griffin noticed something missing on the newly designed Missouri license plate.

The state bird, the bluebird, is there, sitting on a branch of the state tree, the hawthorn, against a light blue background.

But the hyphen between the words “Show” and “Me” is missing. It should be there, since it is a compound modifier as well as Missouri tradition, said Griffin, an Oklahoman.

“It’s just a shame,” said Griffin, who has family in St. Louis and close ties to the Show-Me State. “It does send the wrong message to young students who are learning the basics of grammar.

“For whatever reason, it got through the bureaucracy and got overlooked, or the artist didn’t know any better.”

Dale Simpson, a professor of English at Missouri Southern State University and head of the department of English and philosophy, said the rules of grammar require the hyphen.

“If you have a compound modifier before a noun, it would be hyphenated,” he said.

Missourians were asked to cast votes for three candidates for the new state license plate, and the “bluebird” plate was chosen by 56 percent of 258,000 Internet voters. The other two candidates have the hyphen in the phrase “Show-Me State.”

For the bluebird plate, the phrase “Show Me State” originally was on the right-hand side, but it was affecting the ability to print the plates, said David Griffith, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Revenue. The phrase was moved to the middle of the plate. But even when it was on the right-hand side of the plate, it did not have the hyphen.

Griffith isn’t disputing the need for the hyphen. In fact, the hyphen was used throughout the press release issued by his office earlier this month announcing the winner.

But there is little the state can do about it now, he said. The plates already are being printed and are to be released June 16.

Missouri law requires the slogan “Show-Me State” on the license plate, but it doesn’t specify the hyphen, Griffith noted.

“All it truly says is that it would have to be on the plate,” he said.

Besides, the deed is done. Twelve million plates are being printed, and starting over would require someone to show a lot of money, so the plates will remain hyphen-free. The plates cost $1.39 to make, and 2.8 million already have been printed, Griffith said Thursday.

“We’ve got them printed, and they’re on their way,” he said.

Omar Davis, director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, was unavailable for comment.

That’s not good enough for Griffin, a freelance writer, who wants the plates reprinted correctly, lest Missouri become the laughingstock of its neighbors in Kansas, Illinois and, God forbid, Arkansas.

“It’s just the message it sends. We care about our image,” he said, explaining why the state should request a do-over.



Andy Ostmeyer writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.





Show-Me history



“There are a number of stories and legends behind Missouri’s sobriquet ‘Show-Me’ state. The slogan is not official, but is common throughout the state and is used on Missouri license plates.

“The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri Rep. Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared, ‘I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.’

“Regardless of whether Vandiver coined the phrase, it is certain that his speech helped to popularize the saying.

“Other versions of the ‘Show-Me’ legend place the slogan’s origin in the mining town of Leadville, Colo. There, the phrase was first employed as a term of ridicule and reproach. A miner’s strike had been in progress for some time in the mid-1890s, and a number of miners from the lead districts of Southwest Missouri had been imported to take the places of the strikers. The Joplin miners were unfamiliar with Colorado mining methods and required frequent instructions. Pit bosses began saying, ‘That man is from Missouri. You’ll have to show him.’”

Source: Missouri secretary of state, www.sos.mo.gov

        

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