Wherever

Starting the drive to LA on Friday, I was on the phone with Jamaica when I noticed that the car next to me had the license plate VAREKAI.

I know this word: it is the title of a Cirque du Soleil show from several years ago. I have the soundtrack.

I observed this and wondered aloud what the car's owner's association with that show might be. Performer? Producer? Big fan? Somehow all of it seemed sort of unlikely. Plus, it was not the sort of car I would expect a circus performer to drive.

"Maybe it isn't that show, but I'm pretty sure it's a nonsense word," I said pretty surely. "Hmm, or maybe it actually means something. Maybe it's a Romanian word?"

Jamaica was sitting at her computer and looked it up.

"It is a Romanian word," she said. "It means 'wherever.' "

That is actually a pretty neat license plate.