Bad signs of the world: Flickr pool

Posted by Cory Doctorow, September 30, 2007 2:20 AM | permalink

I just lost half an hour of my life to the highly amusing "Bad Signage" Flickr pool, which sports hundreds of photos of bad and weird signs. This is a favorite photographic subject of mine -- I think because bad signs are a kind of window into the most demented minds of other people, their humor, their malapropisms, their authoritarian tendencies, and their anxieties. Link

(Photo credit: The cropped, downsized thumbnail above is reproduced on the basis of fair use from Excard1970's photo, "Best sign of the year (so far)")

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Older Web Zen: retro zen

Newer Pratchett's Discworld: a reading-order guide

Discussion

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#1 posted by praise and coffee

, September 30, 2007 4:05 AM

That is funny!

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#2 posted by Adam Stanhope

, September 30, 2007 5:06 AM

A perennial favorite of mine is the sign in front of Burger King or McDonald's that is supposed to say, "NOW HIRING CLOSERS" and has been modified instead to say "NOW HIRING LOSERS."

Wacky!

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#3 posted by Flying Squid

, September 30, 2007 6:12 AM

National Lampoon put out a book of these years ago called True Facts: The Big Book. Great stuff.

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#4 posted by Tricon

, September 30, 2007 7:31 AM

I once saw a sign at a KFC that said "WE CLUB OUR CHICKEN SANDWICHES"
The poor sandwiches. What did they ever do to you?

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#5 posted by devoinregress

, September 30, 2007 7:48 AM

I saw one once that said "Eat food and get gas" at a restaurant/ gas station.

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#6 posted by Anonymous , September 30, 2007 9:05 AM

There used to be a shop near where I grew up in San Jose called Linoleum Dick's. Just goes to show the importance of apostrophes.

My other favorite was the adult theater next door to the scuba shop. The marquee said "Outstanding Adult Films", right next to a gigantic sign that said "SKIN DIVING".

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#7 posted by Jennifer Emick

, September 30, 2007 9:35 AM

Awesome...I have a whole collection of my own to add to this.

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#8 posted by jordan

, September 30, 2007 12:32 PM

"Skid Marx" is a great name for a band.

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#9 posted by jere7my

, September 30, 2007 1:30 PM

My favorite was one of those hanging supermarket aisle markers, listing that aisle's items in two vertical columns of text, which I saw in Ann Arbor some years ago. The left and right sides read:

BABY NEEDS
DIAPERS

INFANTS WEAR
BABY FOOD