Wednesday, October 27, 2021

PLEASE

[A genuine sign.]

I photographed this sign in a medical building some time ago. Tororo’s photograph of a mirror under repair made me think of this photograph, look for it, and post it.

This sign must have been meant as a warning to employees with deconstructive tendencies. Hands off the signifier and the signified! Notice the tape at the top: this sign about a sign must have been a placeholder for an even more portentous signifier.

Related reading
All OCA signage posts (Pinboard)

comments: 4

shallnot said...

My favourite passage from Helene Hanff’s “The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street” is:

Wrote three new pages and took them down to the [Reader's] Digest office in Berkeley Square and walked home by a lovely new route, straight up the Visitors' Map to the Regent's Park area and then over. Somewhere along the way I came upon a mews with a small sign on the entrance gate addressed to the passing world. The sign orders flatly:

“Commit No Nuisance”

I wonder how many signs in this world could be replaced by that one?

Steven

Michael Leddy said...

Good advice for us all.

I finally read TDoBS last winter after watching the Anne Bancroft movie and reading 84, Charing Cross Road again. I’ve had a copy for years but somehow had never read it. I’m glad she finally got to England.

Tororo said...

"This sign about a sign must have been a placeholder for an even more portentous signifier."
So insightful, thanks Michael!

Michael Leddy said...

And thank you for that mirror, Tororo.