License, Registration And Weight, Please

"I would remind everyone that the application to apply for or renew a driver's license or identification must be signed by penalty of perjury so the information presented is correct," she said. "It's a Class 2 misdemeanor to knowingly make a false statement on a driver's license."

(Can you imagine what would happen if they started enforcing those perjury penalties? "Out of the car, ma'am. Step on this scale nice and easy now.")

Women's tendency to fabricate their weight is so well known that it's a tired punch line. Even Jim Carrey couldn't make it that funny. (Remember "Liar Liar" when he read a woman's weight on her driver's license and scoffed, "Yeah! In your bra!"?)

So why is it enshrined on so many driver's licenses? Why are state motor vehicle departments mindlessly promoting such widespread mendacity? I mean, why bother ?

I decided to investigate.

First, I called Jason D. King, spokesman for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, who said he had no idea why states ask for weight.

He promised to check into it. While I waited, I wondered if other countries were as weight-conscious as we. I Googled "International Driver's License" and called the first listing that popped up, Vimar International in Brooklyn, and spoke to Helena Kairsa.

"We do not have weight. We have only height," she said.

"Why don't you include weight?"

"Why should we?"

Silence.

"The weight is variable," she said finally. "Today one weight. Another day another weight. So why do we have to include it?"