Speling and signs

If you’ve arrived here from the Corndancer dot com Photo of the Week, this continues the saga. If you’ve arrived here independently of the original story, and your curiosity is piqued, you can check it out here.

With tabuls and chers one would presume

It seems like, in this day and age, we are swimming in a sea of “mispelt wirds.” This is personified by marker wielding sign makers who dot the landscape with pop art populated by misspelled words. The sign to the left decorates the exit of a Wal-Mart store.

The aspiring merchant posted two of these masterpieces, The other one, probably the second, touts the sale as “whole house.” You can see it here. There seems to be consistency in design and syntax.

What, no Mazola?

Marker signs show up almost everywhere. If not free standing, they are attached to an existing structure. The two-way highway sign near an overpass touts a “Foam Party.” That’s a new one on me. I recall hearing about the legendary “Mazola” parties of the sixties, but a “foam party” leaves me mystified.

Apparently, the party organizers wanted to make certain invitees and the curious could find the festivities. There were five or six other signs staked out along the right-of-way with arrows pointing in the right direction. These signs had fallen victim to the morning dew and were sadly folded and nearly unreadable. But nothing can deter a determined marker sign person from plying his craft. Probably they were OK before the party and served their purpose.

Don't even think about shipping or receiving on the wrong side. We are watching you.

Signs can give us a grin. We see see a sign and ask ourselves, what were they thinking? In the case of the overhead door sign, perhaps it was a company edict to encourage multi-tasking.

The building is currently not occupied, but placement of the “receiving” and “shipping” signs makes one wonder if there was a supervisor whose job it was to make certain that shipping and recieving were confined to the proper side of the open door. If this policy were violated, was a note of reprimand placed in a personnel file? Inquiring minds want to know.

It had to be on purpose. But what purpose?

Still in the “what were they thinking” mode, take a look at the Polaris sign. Is this a special accommodation to those few motorists who drive while standing on their heads? Or was it inspired one of the philatelist’s fondest hopes and desires, the inverted airmail stamp?

I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. But it does stimulate conversation on something besides the weather. Thanks for dropping by,

Joe Dempsey

Verbiage and all photographs © 2008 Joe Dempsey. Violators of this copyright will be relentlessly tracked down, Immediately upon capture, said miscreants will be summarily tossed to the lions.

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