Maybe she considers a ‘warning’ not enough. They should be praising her for her actions, but instead they’re barely admitting that they jumped to conclusions before hearing her side of the story. They were wrong and they should acknowledge that. It’s unfair of them not to.
They didn’t wait to hear her side of the story because there is no side that justifies her actions. Now when someone flies past the stop sign and plows into a family of four killing them all, we can take heart in knowing that at least the driver didn’t have to witness racist graffiti.
A little harsh, Mark M. We don’t know how much of the stop sign had already been covered by the racist graffiti, so it’s possible that her addition didn’t make it much worse. And it is still obviously a stop sign, immediately recognizable to anyone smart enough to pass a driver’s test.
There have been judgments in German traffic courts that abrogate the excuse “the sign was obscured” (by snow, dirt, or unfavorable lighting), specifically because most of the “relevant” signs are uniquely shaped, in order to make them discernable even in adverse conditions.
The usual thing is to let the person holding the spray can off with a warning, not the parent or the police officer. I suspect whomever submitted this understood that, just didn’t find it as amusing as the artist did.
In high school, I had a teacher whose last name was “Lane”. He once joked about signs painted on the parking lot calling for his dismissal. I looked out the window, and the area where the lot ran along the building said FIRE LANE repeatedly in huge block letters.
I have a standard joke about the SPEED BUMPS signs in my neighborhood — how they demonstrate we live in a kinder, gentler time, since people used to claim SPEED KILLS and — now, here it only “bumps!”
@ Shrug – For those who might not be familiar with “Randolph Itch”, it’s worth noting that Tom Toles created the feature because of his own insomnia, and discontinued producing it when he accepted the position of editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post.
Very nice one, Shrug. It cleverly turns on a “structural ambiguity” in the grammatical role of “falling”.
That reminds me of examples from early textbooks for transformational syntax. One sentence, perhaps attributed to Chomsky himself, was “Visiting relatives can be boring”. And the ambiguity would be revealed in noting two possible responses, both of which would be well formed in the discourse sequence. Yes, they certainly can be! Yes, it certainly can be!
A long time ago Mad Magazine had ideas to turn traffic signs into advertising signs. “SLOW CHILDREN” became “Give SLOW CHILDREN The Book of Knowledge!”
There’s a “Cretin Avenue” in St. Paul, and there used to be a “Cretin High School” which took its name from its location. Some years ago they changed the name of the school after a merger (it’s now Cretin-Derham Hall), but the avenue’s name remains. I don’t know, but would assume signs with the former name on it would have tended to get stolen and/or “modified” a lot by pranksters.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Maybe she considers a ‘warning’ not enough. They should be praising her for her actions, but instead they’re barely admitting that they jumped to conclusions before hearing her side of the story. They were wrong and they should acknowledge that. It’s unfair of them not to.
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BTW, people are doing approximately what Cynthia is doing (and there are people profiting from it by selling the stickers):
https://odditymall.com/includes/content/you-can-now-get-a-giant-cat-sticker-to-cover-up-racist-graffiti-on-the-streets-thumb.jpg
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They didn’t wait to hear her side of the story because there is no side that justifies her actions. Now when someone flies past the stop sign and plows into a family of four killing them all, we can take heart in knowing that at least the driver didn’t have to witness racist graffiti.
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A little harsh, Mark M. We don’t know how much of the stop sign had already been covered by the racist graffiti, so it’s possible that her addition didn’t make it much worse. And it is still obviously a stop sign, immediately recognizable to anyone smart enough to pass a driver’s test.
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There have been judgments in German traffic courts that abrogate the excuse “the sign was obscured” (by snow, dirt, or unfavorable lighting), specifically because most of the “relevant” signs are uniquely shaped, in order to make them discernable even in adverse conditions.
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The usual thing is to let the person holding the spray can off with a warning, not the parent or the police officer. I suspect whomever submitted this understood that, just didn’t find it as amusing as the artist did.
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It took me a minute to realize she is showing them a picture on her phone. I thought it was a canned drink or something.
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The problem with defacing STOP signs is that they might be less easy to discern at night.
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Oh!, okay. It’s a picture she took of the sign before her coverup! As evidence she was responding to something real. Guess I’m really slow on this.
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“We don’t know how much of the stop sign had already been covered by the racist graffiti”
The usual method of defacement to a stop sign is adding words after “Stop” to turn it into a political slogan.
Or a song lyric.
Most likely the racist graffiti was to add “the Juwes” or “immigrayshon”
So covering the whole sign is likely worse.
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The USC fan who turned a fire lane curb sign into “Fire Lane Kiffin” a few years back should have won a humorous defacing award.
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In high school, I had a teacher whose last name was “Lane”. He once joked about signs painted on the parking lot calling for his dismissal. I looked out the window, and the area where the lot ran along the building said FIRE LANE repeatedly in huge block letters.
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I have a standard joke about the SPEED BUMPS signs in my neighborhood — how they demonstrate we live in a kinder, gentler time, since people used to claim SPEED KILLS and — now, here it only “bumps!”
(Mrs. Shrug is very tired of hearing this joke.)
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And another “creative misunderstanding of a common sign” joke, noted today at another site I read:
https://www.gocomics.com/randolphitch/2020/10/03
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@ Shrug – For those who might not be familiar with “Randolph Itch”, it’s worth noting that Tom Toles created the feature because of his own insomnia, and discontinued producing it when he accepted the position of editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post.
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Very nice one, Shrug. It cleverly turns on a “structural ambiguity” in the grammatical role of “falling”.
That reminds me of examples from early textbooks for transformational syntax. One sentence, perhaps attributed to Chomsky himself, was “Visiting relatives can be boring”. And the ambiguity would be revealed in noting two possible responses, both of which would be well formed in the discourse sequence. Yes, they certainly can be! Yes, it certainly can be!
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And all the ‘soft shoulder / to cry on’ jokes.
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George Carlin had his own take on what he described as signs that are not well thought out.
“GAS FOOD”
Yum. Can’t wait to get that gas food.
“GAS FOOD HOSPITAL”
Maybe we’d better think twice about getting that gas food.
“FINE FOR LITTERING”
Great! Let’s clean out the car.
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I’ve seen more than one “SLOW _____” sign where the text is all of one size, instead of the SLOW being of larger letters. Favorites being SLOW SCHOOL.
Of course, signs using symbols avoid this.
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Or, notoriously, “Slow Children Crossing”
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Yeah the joke is that the mom and cop are the ones who get the warning.
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>Yeah the joke is that the mom and cop are the ones who get the warning.
But that leads to the question as to Cynthia’s plaintive “No, It’s not.” Take the win, girl, take the win.
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A long time ago Mad Magazine had ideas to turn traffic signs into advertising signs. “SLOW CHILDREN” became “Give SLOW CHILDREN The Book of Knowledge!”
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I once saw berry medley ice-cream called ‘Berry Berry’. Seriously.
– Honey, what did you pick up at the supermarket?
– Berry Berry!
This potential scenario makes me smile daily.
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There’s a “Cretin Avenue” in St. Paul, and there used to be a “Cretin High School” which took its name from its location. Some years ago they changed the name of the school after a merger (it’s now Cretin-Derham Hall), but the avenue’s name remains. I don’t know, but would assume signs with the former name on it would have tended to get stolen and/or “modified” a lot by pranksters.
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There’s a yogurt for babies called “Yo Baby.” I’m waiting to see a yogurt for mothers called “Yo Mama.”
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I’m waiting for a yogurt which can double as wood polish for kids’ toys: Yo Yo Yo.
Or, of course, a yogurt for classical musicians called Yo Yo-Yo Ma.
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Right now, we can expect Yo Gourd.
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If there were a yogurt with extra fiber and prunes, they could call it Go-Gurt, if that name weren’t already taken.
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Ogden Nash – Cross children ride, happy children walk – in reference to a careful children crossing picture sign.
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