Tag Archives: signs

California Craziness

Here are some interesting/amusing signs we spotted on our trip to Northern California last month.

Silver Surf MotelSilver Surfer Motel

This seemed appropriate for a trip to a comic convention. And like the Sylar Industries sign I posted earlier, all it needed was a little adjustment. Can you get a room with the power cosmic? Found in San Simeon, across the highway from our motel. (Keep in mind as you read on that the one on the right is the only doctored photo in the post.)

Sign: Mr. Speeder, Meet Mr. Traffic CopMy personal favorite was this one in Sunnyvale. It’s always nice when city planners (or anyone making a sign, really) have a sense of humor.

Perhaps Mr. Speeder was frustrated by driving this street, somewhere near San Luis Obispo:

Exit 220A to Traffic Way
Continue reading

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Sylar Industries

Up in Napa, we found this sign at the entrance to Syar Industries.

Sign: Syar Industries, Inc.

Being Heroes fans, we couldn’t resist. Not only was the name just one letter off of the show’s popular villain, but the elongated S in the logo was just begging for a trio of crosspieces to turn it into the helix symbol that appears everywhere in the show. A bit of photo-manipulation later:

Adjusted Sign: Sylar Industries, Inc.

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Ick! Sins!

Sign: ICK SI NS (normally QUICK SIGNS)

According to Katie, this actually said “quick sins” the previous time we drove past it!

This shot almost cost us our new car. The sign faces the freeway, and rather than stick Katie with shooting from a moving vehicle at night, I tried to find a good angle from the parking lot. We saw that the lot extended far enough to see around the corner, and headed for the end of the lot. As I prepared to turn into the last space on the end, a truck came zooming around the corner of the next building over, a Carl’s Jr. with a drive-through and absolutely no visibility. Clearly they weren’t expecting to see anyone in the lot at 10:00 at night. Fortunately we both stopped in time.

Also, I now know that the horn works.

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Wash Out

Wash Out

Is that like “Bridge Out?” As in the wash has broken down, so isn’t safe for the water to cross? How is the water supposed to read the sign? ;-)

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Yield to Confusion

Found this while wandering around the Lemon Heights area a few weeks ago, looking for scenic viewpoints. It’s on the Skyline trail, near Peters Canyon park.

Yield sign with 3-way diagram with icons and arrows.

It seems to be saying this:

  • Cyclists* yield to pedestrians and horses.
  • Pedestrians yield to horses.
  • Horses yield to no one.

But if you’ve never seen it before, the meaning isn’t clear at a glance.

Apparently the idea is to make everyone stop and try to work out the diagram, so that they can start moving again in the right order.

*Or perhaps only bicycles, since there’s no rider in the picture.

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New Age Drinks?

Grocery aisle containing New Age Drinks

Okay, maybe I’ve missed a memo or something, but can someone tell me: what exactly is a new age drink? Nothing in the aisle stood out as being particularly new-agey.

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Icy?

Warning sign by road: Icy.  Everything’s green.

I found this photo while looking for the UCI Student Center pic. This was taken on the way back from a camping trip with UCI’s Campuswide Honors Program in the Angeles National Forest in April 2000. IIRC it was along Angeles Crest Highway.

A permanent sign isn’t necessarily the best way to indicate a transitory condition.

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Not a problem

No Parking sign… in the middle of the lawn.Ordinarily, there wouldn’t be anything odd about this sign. But look at the placement.

Why do they need a No Parking sign in the middle of the lawn? It’s a new sign, too—they just redid the entire lawn last year.

Seriously, I don’t think they’re going to have much of a problem with people parking on the lawn in front of an office building in Irvine.

Come to think of it, though, this is only 50 feet or so from the crosswalk warning device.

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Cylon Sighting

Hmm, does anyone else think that the logo on this sign….

ACC (All Counties Courier) sign

…looks a bit like a Cylon Basestar?

Cylon Basestar

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Prim(a)tech Sighting

In honor of the Heroes DVD release, here’s a truck that’s almost, but not quite labeled for Primatech Paper:

Prime Tech Cabinets, Inc.

Heroes DVD coverInterestingly, it’s been a month for timing pop culture releases with relevant astronomical events. First Stardust, all about catching a falling star, arrived in theaters the same weekend as the Perseids meteor shower. Today, the Heroes Season 1 DVD arrives on the same day as a total eclipse (albeit a lunar one, rather than solar).

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