It's Got to Be a Sign!

If I were a standup comic I'd kick off this essay by asking, "And what is it with signs these days?" But really, what is it with signs these days?


Back in the day, we could count on signs to tell us important things like STOP and YIELD and FREE FOOD. But now, way too often, they either tell you to do things that don't make any sense when you think about them hard enough or they warn you not to do things that even Justin Bieber would have the sense not to do. Or that even Miley Cyrus would have the sense not to do. Or that even Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus at a party hosted by Robin Thicke would have the sense not to do.

I've been making notes for the last year or so every time I see one of these signs. One is in the picture right up there. Notice it says that the screen is intended to keep insects out and is not equipped to keep someone's drunk behind in if he or she were impaired enough to think that wedging their rump into the window would be really, really fun just to see if it will fit or how much it will hurt if it falls out and lands on the concrete five floors down. 

Then there's the sign at my local Kroger that invites me to say hi to the manager. It goes on to say that their goal is to greet every customer and that their success rate is 95%. 

I'm not saying Kroger doesn't mean well, but they are asking us to acknowledge them so that they can meet their goal of acknowledging us. That's like getting a pat on the back for saying hi when all you did was say hi back.

Late last summer that same Kroger set about a dozen half-dead plants outside the store with a sign reading HALF OFF. Maybe Kroger meant that the plants' leaves were half off or that the plants themselves were halfway off to whatever place it is that plants go when they die. A good customer would have used the leaves to spell out HI! thereby helping Kroger to meet its greeting goal even as it was selling off the plants.

One day when the kids and I were out for a drive, we passed a sign advertising free rocks. Why would I bother with those when all I have to do to get free rocks is have the kids bend over and shake their heads real hard? Granted, a construction project manager or a landscaper or even a gardener might have seen value in free rocks, but egoist that I am, I see things through my own narcissistic filter so a sign advertising free rocks looked ridiculous to me; especially since, as I said before, I had my own quarry buckled up in the backseat. 

I need to get over my critical negativity lest locusts descend upon me; or a plague; or locusts infected by a plague. 

Because no matter which of them I got stuck with, it would be a really bad sign.