The Utah State Tax Commission received my appeal notice, and sent me a Notice of Initial Hearing in return. I found it hilarious that the person who entered my information into their computer system misspelled it “Undink.” Maybe she was trying to tell me something. =) I called the Appeals Unit this morning and talked to a woman named Ann, who promptly fixed the error while I was on the phone with her. At least she was good-natured and understanding about it, and I can only hope that everybody at the Tax Commission is that way (well, except for the guy who denied the plate in the first place). The hearing is scheduled for October 27 in Salt Lake City, so I’ve got plenty of time to do some research and prepare my arguments. I’m considering hiring an attorney to represent me, but I’ve really got other things that I need to spend my money on–that is, unless somebody would be willing to do some pro bono work? =) The problem is that my case probably isn’t something that an attorney would be willing to take on free or nearly free of charge, and even if I paid an attorney to handle the case, it’s not really a legal proceeding, so the expertise of an attorney may not help me much.
A reporter with the Sun Advocate called me yesterday and asked some questions, and said she figured not many people around here would have heard of the story from the Tribune, so she wanted to write something up on it too. I think it’ll be in tomorrow’s paper. I did have a couple of people ask me about it already–one woman who knows my wife saw us in the grocery store and stopped to ask if that article was about me, and another guy that I know who distributes the Tribune down here stopped me in Kmart and asked if I needed some copies of the paper. My grandpa read it in the paper too, and apparently he was pretty pissed off about the whole thing. For that matter, I’m sure a lot of Udinks aren’t happy to have the state of Utah declare their last name officially offensive. The highest concentration of Udinks in the U.S. live in Utah, so why the state would suddenly deem the name offensive is beyond me.
first of all good goin (fuck the man). but how the hell is the word “undink” offensive?
Well, where I grew up “dink” is often a term used to refer to the male reproductive organ. I suppose someone could perceive his license plate as a l33t way to say “YOU DINK!”. That is, of course, stupid, but clearly the basis of their rejecting his request.
Yeah, I’ve heard it used that way before too, though it’s not all that common. Somebody could just as easily take the name Richard out of context and use it in the same way, so I don’t see a problem with allowing Udink. Seeing as how Udink is a fairly common name in Utah (especially in Carbon County), most people would actually know that it’s somebody’s last name, and not meant to be offensive.
DINK Dual Income No Kids