Signs of the Times

While traveling in Ireland – actually, let me more specific – while driving a stick-shift rental car with the wrong hand, on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road for the first time from Dublin to the west coast of Ireland in one day, I came round a curve that said something like ‘Warning! Black Spot Ahead!’ And sure enough, around the bend on a rock face we were approaching was a giant black spot!  We were flummoxed. We knew the highway engineers probably weren’t kidding when they posted that sign, but for the average American, having never heard of Black Spots and the dangers they pose, it was initially puzzling, then a source of bemusement.

After discussing it for a few minutes we decided it must be the equivalent of the American ‘Blind Curve/ Dangerous Curve,’ or something similar to crosses erected on the side of the road in  the southwestern U.S., where people have been killed. Hardly funny once understood, but for the uninitiated, 'Black Spots' conjure up any number of associations that have nothing to do with what they actually represent.

Some signs are just something one never encounters in the western USA in everyday life, so they can catch you by surprise.  For example:

 (Well, duh!)

(You're kidding...right?)

We passed this sign along the west coast of the south island in New Zealand. I even took the trouble to ask at the visitor's center in Greymouth if penguins really cross the road along there, since I had always thought penguins only lived much further south and was not sure if this was just some joke. Yes, they do cross there - mostly at night I was assured.

In the U.S. we have ‘Slow, Children at play’ signs, but we seem to expect the elderly to walk quickly and watch out for themselves.  To their credit, in Scotland they yield the road.

In America, 'Humps for 350 yards' would be a bit perplexing...

...but I was tempted to hang about for a while in Edinburgh for a glimpse of a humped zebra.

In Sydney, they take special precautions for the babies...

Ok, I'll admit that bollards are something we might have a few of in the U.S., but I don't personally think I've ever seen the word used on a warning sign.  At first glance in York, I couldn't even think of what a bollard might be (since it was out of view at the time), but they had me convinced it was dire...

Of course other signs just make you pause for a moment, like in Amsterdam where they advise drivers to stop occasionally to moisten their eyes...or in Buxton, England where 'Slow' is not even slow enough.

(Ok!  Will do!)

(Let me just say, this would be an excellent sign for a graveyard.)

Or there is just the language crossover...

                                        (Where the best and brightest learn their craft!)


Then there are the signs that make you wonder whether someone thought them through completely...

(Oooo, sounds tasty)

(Are they rabid ‘round these parts?)

(How sweet!)

Or signs in a serendipitous setting...

 

Other signs are just there - and well, surprising that they are there...

(There really is a town in Newfoundland called Dildo - look it up.)

The first two below are signs in England - an English speaking land...

 

(Well, that's clear as mud.)

(hmmm.....)

But then the Germans have their moments too...

(...just in case you're strolling through the woods on your hands?)

This one was just plain lovely...

(Ah, yes, Santorini is a Homeric Poem!)

And last, we have nature's own sign - just shadow play - but amazing, nonetheless!

Signs are an almost endless source of entertainment - especially when they aren't trying to be...