Every now and then, I get struck by how eccentric I can seem. Like in this exchange, held today in a cafe in Davis Square. I was looking for milk for my coffee. There was none on the thing with the sugar and silverware etc, and I happened to glance to my left at the refrigerator, where there were milk, cream, and half-and-half dispensors on the bottom shelf. Then I looked back at the sugar silverware thing, and saw a sign taped to the window above: "Milk Products On Bottom Shelf In Refrigerator" with an arrow.
Then I encountered the pixie-ish, dazed-looking barista on the floor.
Me: Can I ask you a question? Do people ask you for milk and cream?
Barista: Yes.
Me: Often?
Barista (suddenly suspicious) Um....
Me (hurriedly assessing potential ways for her to answer this question: n out of m, X per hour, every Zth customer ) I just....I didn't see it. I'm interested in how often people read signs.
It could very well be me, since I'm usually pretty oblivious to my surroundings, but I think a little hand-drawn placard next to the sugar would be a better solution.
About Me
- Lore & Ipsum
- I'm interested in language, grammar, cooking, rhetoric, discourse, design, taxonomies, food, conversation & interaction analysis, girl things, cognitive science, finding a job, and large bodies of water.
9 comments:
How long has 'Hi Mark' been up there and are you getting royalties from bc/bs?
I like this story and I will look forward to you forthcoming expose on signs.
Remember when I wanted to make little sticker that said "You're Welcome" to put on signs that said "Thank you for not smoking"?
Interrogating the barista one customer at a time. Does that fit the model? Xing the Y one Z at a time?
I saw a sign at work today that read "Think Pink!", but there was no further information to be had on or around the sign. Are we just rhyming, because I love rhyming (Obtuse Puce!) or perhaps there was just a missing comma, and the sign was imploring the singer Pink to think about her upcoming divorce? After all, Pink was capitalized.
In any case, I tend not to think in Pink. I think more in ecru. (Eschew Ecru? Never!)
Mark - bc/bs? And I'm glad you noticed "hi mark," I was wondering how long it would take someone to see it.
Charles: I think it was more like "alienating the hipsters, one barista at a time."
"...dismantling Ground Zero* one member at a time."
*http://www.thisishappening.com/OrgPage.php?curOrg=4745&show=profile
Shannon, as an employee, I understand that you cannot deface certain signs. By which I mean, be seen defacing certain signs. But I think your idea is brilliant and would love to come insert commas and add pictures of Pink.
Do you think it's one of those ads that are meant to Be Mysterious and Stir Up Great Interest? Or maybe it's for breast cancer, in which case I am a jerk.
We're on break here, so no one will see me defacing...
I like to think of it as "correcting". I work in an English department, after all. I will use red pen.
Actually, the students here are into rhyming, usually with some horrid event connected to it. "Wetter is Better" was spelled out in masking tape on my building, and then an 18-year old girl thrust a packet of lube at me, and said "Happy Lube Day". Wait till the jewelry gets its claws into that one. "If you don't get your lady-friend diamonds for lube day, she won't love you." That's very true.
* jewelry industry, that is. Imagine this is in red pen.
Blue Cross Blue Shield as in
Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
bnenbmb: any configuration of letters that has no business being a word in any language.
The Ground Zero website seems to have been dismantled. I like:
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