I'm the kind of guy who likes to follow the rules. Upbringing, I suppose. But when I see a sign that says "Enter" here and "Exit" there, I tend to go out of my way if necessary to "Enter" here and "Exit" there. You won't likely see me parking in a "Handicap Only" parking space. I try to do what I'm told.
Sometimes that gets difficult. You pull out of a parking lot and you see the sign that tells you, "No right turn". Now, what kind of rule is that? Why is it mandatory that any turn I take out of that parking lot would be the wrong one? But ...
One sign I came across at a college campus said, "Observe all signs." Now, that seemed like an impossible command. How was I to know where all signs were? Surely I wasn't expected to go into, say, the women's restroom and observe the signs. There were sure to be signs behind locked doors. So how could I comply?
One time I went to work on a Monday and saw the signs on the wall: "Wet Paint." Now, being the rule-follower that I am, I tried looking around for some way to obey. I mean, it would be a waste of good coffee to throw that on the wall, but, for reasons I didn't grasp, they appeared to want me to keep their paint wet.
Then I noticed the smaller writing underneath. "Painted with pride by the Maintenance Department." Well, this just brought me up short. "Painted with pride"? Odd. I would have thought they would have used paint. They used ... pride? Strange. And then it struck me. The wall ... was white. Oh, this was just wrong. They painted this wall with white pride? What kind of place was this "Maintenance Department" with their racism and odd painting methods?
Sometimes signs just confuse me.
4 comments:
I have the same problem. It even extends to labels. I see "organic" ketchup and wonder what "inorganic" ketchup looks like. I saw a heading on a menu "Working Beverages" and wondered what "Lazy Beverages" looked like.
Har har. Okay, how about "Slow children ahead", with no comma or period? Fast children would probably be able to get out of the way! Regardless, whatever kind of children, vehicular speed should probably still be decreased. Near here, there is a yellow and black road sign showing just a teeter-totter with 2 figures on it. But nothing resembling a teeter-totter is up ahead on the road, or even over in the nearby park! Where's that teeter-totter we're supposed to be watching out for? Apparently it's even more elusive than the deer on all those bounding deer signs.
Apparently you're not aware of the serious problem of unemployment among beverages these days?
I've always wondered about that "Slow Children Ahead" sign. It always seemed more like an invitation than a warning. And, I've always wondered, why do they put up those deer crossing signs? It's not like deer can read. But, seriously, a woman wrote to her city council to request that they move that very sign near their house -- they lived on the main road coming into town. Too many deer were crossing there and getting hit. They needed to move it to a safer location for the deer.
Sigh. I guess I'm not the only one with sign problems.
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