Licence to love, or die

You can't say transport officials have no sense of romance. For Valentine's Day today, the department is auctioning 190 licence plate numbers at the convention centre in Wan Chai. Among these are DL213, LJ213 and CW2013.

In Putonghua, the numbers sound like 'love for life' or 'love you for love', and there is of course, the DL prefix, as in 'darling'. Lo Down is at a loss with LJ and CW.

There are, however, less auspicious numbers on offer, such as DY 4444, as in 'Death, death, death, death' and 9413, which had to be withdrawn at two previous auctions since 2001.

What does 9413 mean in Cantonese? Nine deaths for one life - certainly not a good survival rate.