I’ve had the same license plate for something like 25 years—on my last five vehicles, at least. OH ICK.
It still sums things up perfectly.
And it still gets a reaction. I’ve been at stoplights, watching in the rear view mirror as people behind me nudge each other, point at my car’s behind, and laugh. Just a couple weeks ago, someone pulled to the curb across the street and took a picture of me; when I raised my eyebrows, he called out, “I love your license plate!” And I’ve discovered that same expression of love multiple times, scrawled in pen or Sharpie on various napkins or other scrap paper, tucked under my windshield wiper.
The other day, a guy leaned out the passenger window of a beat-up truck in the left turn lane next to me and gave me the universal “roll down your window” signal. I’d been trying not to catch his eye, as I’d felt that his gaze had been a touch aggressive as I pulled alongside him, but he was so insistent I buzzed my window down, eyebrows again raised. As the light changed and the driver pulled into his turn, the guy waved and shouted, laughing: “What’s so icky?”
It resonates, I guess.
So where did I stumble upon this phrase?
I’m afraid it’s is something like a misheard lyric, like that well-known line from Manfred Mann’s cover of Springsteen’s “Blinded by the Light.” In this case, “oh, ick” is misheard dialogue from Danger Mouse—easily my favorite cartoon until Phineas and Ferb captured my heart with their X-7 gyroscopic soccer stadium.
Danger Mouse hails from 80s Britain (though it’s been recently rebooted). It records the exploits of the greatest, strongest, quickest, best, etc., secret agent in the world (Danger Mouse, of course) and his trusty, incompetent, bespectacled, hamster sidekick Penfold, known for his colorful expressions of reluctance: “Crikey! Crumbs! Oh, fiddle!”
And, of course, “Oh, ‘eck!” I misheard this for years, though I challenge you to watch this clip and tell me I should have known better.
Anyway, I made it my vanity plate. And after a quarter century plus of what might be considered real-world market testing, I decided it would be appropriate for the name of my blog. It’s not as versatile as the F-word, but it does have range— expressing everything from mild distaste through hard-core cynicism.
And, alas, the world has been giving us plenty to be cynical about lately….