Okay.
Even after the viewer overlooks the missing apostrophe (and two upside-down S's), this sign has problems. I'm struggling to find its message and meaning or any semblance of coherence. It's as if there was a sign meeting and
Chairman of the Sign Committee: Okay, everyone. What should our Holiday Sign say?
Member 1: Technically, it doesn't say anything. People read it. It's not a talking sign.
Chairman: Ha ha, Joyce. Okay, anyone else? I'll write down everyone's suggestion on this legal pad.
Member 2: Happy Holidays!
Member 3: How about Welcome to Cinnamon Lake?
Joyce: That's always on the sign already.
Member 3: You don't have to get snotty, Joyce. And it says "Welcome To Cinnamon Lake A Great Community", if you want to get technical.
Member 2: Come celebrate Christmas with us!
Chairman: Well, not everyone will be coming just for Christmas. Over at the Lodge, we're having a Thanksgiving dinner, and also, don't forget the Christmas Eve Bunco Game and our New Year's Eve Euchre and Trivia Countdown Party.
Member 4: I have to leave early. Carl moved the Recycling Committee meeting to tonight. We need to move this along.
Joyce: What's on our list?
Chairman: Okay. I think I got enough. Meeting adjourned.
Actually laughed at the scenario you gave us. Anyone who has ever been forced to sit on a committee can identify with this group. I have to say that my heart is with Joyce; after too many years of meetings with adjunct Eng.121 teachers, I was always sorely tempted to play that game with my colleagues. But honestly, that is an unaltered picture of a real sign? "Whats on our list"...? I can make no sense of that. The lack of punctuation doesn't help--are lines 2, 3, and 4 a single sentence?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite signs are the ones you see at check-out stands on plastic donation boxes: "Support child abuse!" and so on. Again, tempted to insert the words "the fight against" between the first two words.
Kate--Hi! Welcome to the Dept.
DeleteGlad you laughed. (I was going for that.) As a former English teacher myself, it was easy to imagine and capture the back and forth of a committee and its archetypal members.
Yes, this is a real, honest-to-goodness sign. I made my husband stop, circle back, and stop again so that I could take its photo. It's gorgeous in its awfulness.
I need to start documenting two neighborhood signs I see on a regular basis. One is a church sign, and the other is a gas station sign with supposed oxymorons, that are rarely actual oxymorons. Note to self.
ReplyDeleteRose--You do that!
DeleteI wonder if the word 'our' in the last line is supposed to be, What's on 'your' list? They lost the apostrophes so maybe they also lost the letter 'y'? I used to have occasion to watch flunkies at a mall try to make signs with a box of incomplete letters and those maintenance men---high school drop-outs, no doubt---got rather creative when certain letters were in short supply.
ReplyDeleteJean--I wonder so many things about this sign. And if the letters and apostrophes aren't available, THEN CHANGE WHAT YOU WANT THE SIGN TO SAY. Don't just drop off letters and things and "go with it."
DeleteYou're going to make me start looking at signs, aren't you. LOL
DeleteI think they also lost the question mark. There is so much to be said about this sign, it makes me laugh.
ReplyDeleteMereknits--I laugh, I cry, I shake my head, I ponder the future of Humanity.
Delete