Signs

One of the things that truly tickles me is when I read a sign in a public place that asks or warns people of not doing something. I'm often intrigued by what made the folks post the sign in the first place.

For example, I was at a local city doing business and I saw a sign stating that using profane and abusive language will get you a fine.

It's called disorderly conduct and the law specifically states, "a person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly uses an abusive, indecent, profane, or vulgar language in a public place, and the language by its very utterance stands to incite an immediate breach of the peace."
Since I'm somewhat amused by the story behind the reason WHY the city had the sign posted, it was because some years ago they had a builder come in and essentially threaten the poor workers behind the counter. Apparently, he kept doing it over and over and didn't realize he was doing it.

So the next time you see an odd sign posted, ask for the story behind why they needed to post the sign.

What sparked this blog entry was seeing a post on one of my yahoo groups with a link to Snopes. First of all, I love Snopes. It really helps me temper my less computer literate family members whenever they get some stupid email that gets them upset. Invariably, Snopes has already looked into it and has determined if there is any validity to the email.

But Snopes occasionally gets stumped and they have a page with the questions that have stumped them. Like my fascination with signs, I have wondered (and worried) about some of the stories behind the emails.

Enjoy:

http://www.snopes.com/humor/question/urgent.asp