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General Category => Discover Seattle! => Topic started by: Gopher on Jul 23 06 11:16

Title: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jul 23 06 11:16
Can we have some examples please?

    I'll start you off, having recently seen the following:

  1) (On a telephone booth) "This telephone is now on the other side of the street". - There was NOTHING on the other side of the street.

  2) (On the door of a public building) "This door is to be kept locked and open at all times".    
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kitten on Jul 23 06 11:18
Those are good!  I've seen signs that indicated the business was closed with the door wide open, and vice versa.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: weird al on Jul 23 06 11:45
At Lougheed and Gaglardi, in the bus lane on the south side of Lougheed immediately east of Gaglardi, there's a sign that says BJS ONLY. It looks like it was intentionally made that way, no sign of defacement. Want to get a picture of it it, but it's damned inconvenient.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kitten on Jul 23 06 11:48
It's probably supposed to be BUS, but it's funny this way.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kingy on Jul 23 06 12:56
ive always wondered about the 'no dogs allowed except for guide dogs" sign.

  do guide dogs know how to read because the blind person definately can't.    
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: weird al on Jul 23 06 05:47
Those signs should be in Braille. Also the signs at emergency eyewash stations.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jul 24 06 11:04
I did once see a stone monolith which bore a metal sign in Braille - it was at the end of a very narrow, undergrowth (and overgrowth) ravished, convoluted country trail: how did the blind person get there in the first place - and how would he have known that the stone was there, and last, but not least, how would he have known that it possessed a metal sign written in Braille?
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kitten on Jul 24 06 11:17
On my way to town I saw a sign declaring Vancouver to be a nuclear-free zone.  Any place is until someone decides to drop a bomb on it, so shouldn't they add "So Far"  in brackets?
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jul 24 06 11:23
This sign has always amused me too - you see it all over the place, different cities, different countries, and I've never been quite certain what it meant. Don't even the hospitals have some kind of radio-active materials on their premises in these sactuaries of peace?
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kitten on Jul 24 06 11:26
My heart tests took place in the Department of Nuclear Medicine, so maybe it's not so free after all.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jul 24 06 11:28
Next time you go, you must query the matter.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kitten on Jul 24 06 11:30
I do hope that is many years in the future.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jul 24 06 11:35
Have you come across the Pacific Bell advertisement sign which reads:

  "Phone out of service?

Give us a call".
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kitten on Jul 24 06 11:37
No, I haven't.  Perhaps they mean one should go to their nearest office and yell up at the window, which is likely on the tenth floor.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jul 24 06 11:38
More efficient than their phone service?
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kitten on Jul 24 06 11:39
No, but some small satisfaction in yelling at them.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: weird al on Jul 24 06 11:59
-Saw a sign on Gabriola Island declaring it to be a nuclear weapons free zone.  Kudos to the plucky Gabriolans for keeping nukes off-island!
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Lise on Jul 24 06 12:01
This is a funny thread. I can't think of any right now though.....................
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: TehBorken on Jul 24 06 12:57
 Gopher wrote:
[div style="font-style: italic;"]Have you come across the Pacific Bell advertisement sign which reads:[/div]  [div style="font-style: italic;"]"Phone out of service?[/div] Give us a call".

No, but I saw one that said "Illiterate? Write for a free brochure."

 
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kingy on Jul 24 06 05:11
kind of like those hooked on phonics stuff. if you cant read, how do you order it.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: greenmachine on Jul 26 06 08:34
Not really nonsensical but fun nontheless is the sign in stores and resturants that say: shoes (shirts) must be worn, to which I ask: I've only been wearing these shoes (or shirt as the case may be) for 2 days are they worn enough?  
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Lise on Jul 27 06 08:38
Just saw this sign along 12th Ave - Traffic Calmed Area. (whatever the hell that means)
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jul 28 06 11:14
I've never heard of traffic calming anything before, let alone an area.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: TehBorken on Jul 28 06 11:18
I don't get it. If that's not a nnsensical sign, I don't know what is.

(//vny!://discoverseattle.net/image/handicap-gas-sign.jpg)

See the rest at Darren Barefoot's Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness:  [a href="vny!://darrenbarefoot.com/hall/index.html"]Link[/a]
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jul 28 06 11:21
You could write a thesis solely concerned with the intriguing symbolism of this picture.  
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jan 27 07 11:10
"It is forbidden to enter a woman, even a foreigner, if dressed as a man" - Notice at a Bangkok temple.  
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jan 28 07 11:23
"Please do not flush anything down the toilet except toilet paper" - sign in a Saskatoon restaurant. (How exactly does one do this? - empty out all the contents first?).
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kitten on Jan 28 07 11:26
(//vny!://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/Happy/18.gif) Great one!
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Lise on Jan 28 07 05:31
At a sushi restaurant - Car will be tooed at 2 to 5pm.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Mar 10 07 12:10
Outisde a hospital - Guard dogs operating here.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Lil Me on Mar 10 07 01:39
(//vny!://www.engrish.com/image/engrish/keep-walking.jpg).
 
 
   
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: kingy on Mar 10 07 04:04
that sign would be good for a brothel.
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Sawdust on Mar 11 07 01:21
Nice to see some people still have a sense of humour.

(//vny!://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/upload/2k757adc824d.jpg)
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Sawdust on Mar 11 07 01:58
.(//vny!://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/upload/2kcc5d7b23f7.jpg)
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Lil Me on Mar 12 07 03:05
(//vny!://www.engrish.com/image/engrish/soup-full-of-a-ingredient.jpg).
 
 
 
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: Gopher on Jun 08 12 07:36
(//vny!://i50.tinypic.com/2jd58x3.jpg)
Title: Re: Nonsensical signs
Post by: DDD on Jun 08 12 09:12
#8