Regular victims of eruptions from my venting spleen will know I am much troubled by the idiocy of life as presented in daily packages of stupid. Lately the eye of vexation has strayed to signage – not useful stuff pointing out certain death if you touch that* but the entirely pointless or just plain bonkers.
Let me quote a few representative examples
“Please leave these toilets as you would expect to find them“. So I installed a small bookshelf, line of optics and reading light.
“Turn Left for Guide Dogs for the Blind“. Now that’s just silly, the dog can’t read that. Especially if he’s driving as well.
“Baby on Board“. So what? Want me to make amusing deformed rabbit impressions as I pass?
“Give way to pedestrians“. As opposed to what, just running the poor buggers over?
“You are entering South Yorkshire, a Nuclear Free Zone”. Okay it’s a bit old, but even at the age of 11, I could see that no Russian Bomber pilot was likely to respect the fact that Barnsley had a bloke selling socialist worker.
I could go on, no really I could. Just try to stop me. However, it’s Friday night, Wine O’clock and I’m in the slot for preparing the house for my Dad’s 70th Birthday party. I am not working from a high water mark here either – Having got the kids to sing Happy Birthday down the phone, I excused the lack of card with an airy “No card yet Dad, kids have made you a lovely one”
Tap-Tap on Shoulder. Whisper. “Not now Random, we’re talking to Granddad, anyway Dad as I was saying..” Tap-Tap-Tap”No DAD We haven’t” ‘RANDOM SHUT UP‘ “No Dad, You never asked us, we’ve not done it” ‘RANDOM!’ LEAVE IT “Dad, she’s got a memory problem, probably dropped on her head as a baby“.
So here’s a top weekend tip. Don’t ever work with animals, children or speakerphones 😉
EDIT: And just this morning – although since it is actually before 7am, a chronological value of “still the middle of the bloody night” would be more appropriate – two more missives has reached my analogue inbox:
1) Fresh Fruit ready to eat. Packaged in South Africa and Poland. What is wrong with that sentence 😉
2) A scribbled note on the carriage door “The quiet carriage has a vibration this morning. For customers wanting quiet, please use the non quiet carriage located in the next carriage”
This kind of repetition whiffs of the kind of thing Chiltern Railways’ used to get up to.� It sort of makes sense if you remove any trace of irony, and disassociate it from how Human Beings normally communicate. They can’t help themselves tho, and on my return journey I expect to find a sign “carriage, carriage, carriage, broken, carriage, carriage, late, carriage.”
* but don’t you want too anyway. Just in case it’s a big hoax. And if it isn’t you’ll be far to dead to worry about the embaressment.
Signs are all very well, and I think you are misreading “Baby on Board”. It actually says “I’m a driver who is not concentrating on the road, and I am apt to turn or change lanes without using my indicators. In fact beware all around me because I will drive as it I am in a tank or bumper car.”
I think we have to crank this up a gear. What about the rubbish that the local councils strangely call “street furniture” (I know it conjurs up all sorts of images). I call it a mindless waste of money. Signs warning you about traffic calming, traffic calming itself, signs warning you about the signs that are warning you about traffic calming. Traffic speed cameras would have to feature! Solar powered signs that have to have a normal sign in front of them in case their battery is flat!!!! I could go on, and I do frequently.
A.
How about a campaign for “no signs at all”. Worked pretty well during the war. You might even get people thinking for themselves. Or maybe that’s a step to far…