As a font geek, I’d guess that they were more a “clarity” issue than anything else. White on green shows up just fine, and the font used—and I’ve seen it in the US, Canada, Australia, and Spain—is “Highway Gothic”:
I like Highway Gothic. As a designer, I’ve used it a number of times when designing something that relates to roads. But the latest trend for transport authorities to use is Clearview:
Locally, they’ve been replacing worn-out Highway Gothic signs with Clearview, as well as bringing signs up-to date with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). Yes, we’re in Canada, but the American MUTCD makes things so clear that it would be a shame not to use it. More on the MUTCD:
This was a t-shirt, not a sign, but it was amusing.
I’m on a cruise. Some people bring out their inner Clark Gable / Greta Garbo, and others bring out their inner WalMartian. This was one of the latter. An enormous fat man, about 35, not real bright looking, dirty crocs, beat up swim shorts, and a truly huge T-shirt:
Duct Tape Can’t Fix Stupid
[Biig drawing of a thick roll of black tape]
But It Can Muffle The Noise
Isn’t this the same in just about every country? Of course, in many cases, the town centres have been bypassed so roads that were originally the main highway may now be pedestrianised and traffic-free.
You also have the common case that the road leading out of town is often named for the next town along. So you have Woodstock Rd Oxford and Oxford Rd Woodstock. I imagine that this is common too.
And no, they definitely were not; in my state, liquor is sold only in state-run shops, while beer / wine can be sold anywhere with the appropriate licensing.
There truly was some kind of county-wide teacher appreciation week going on, about then.
Thanks, @Spoons! Now, I’ll know not to be surprised if I see those signs in other countries. It does make sense that if someone has invented the wheel, you don’t need to do it again.
Makes me think of The Goof in Toronto, which was officially the Garden Gate restaurant. The sign had the words Good Food, but years ago part of it burned out, so it read Goo F.
A few years back, we were eating at a Johnny Rockets.
The table had a listing of all their milkshake flavors.
such-and-such “made with” this-or-that.
yes, the words “made with” were in quotes.
I did not know how to interpret that. If it had said something like
xxx made with “yyy” I might have surmised that they didn’t use real yyy in the product, but just something yyy-like.
Maybe it meant there was some genuine yyy product in the kitchen, and they assumed that by putting “made with” in quotes, that meant it was equivalent to “made in the same kitchen as”???
Or the person from the staff or whoever set up the menu didn’t know how and when to use quotation marks. There are legions of these people, as I can see every day in real life and on the internet.
“made with” is an FDA-defined buzzphrase with a specific meaning. Just like “cheese food” is a buzz phrase for a product that isn’t legally cheese, but is cheese-adjacent and starts with at least some real cheese as one ingredient.
I suspect the less that fully illiterate person who did the menu knew “made with” was a magic phrase so the intent was
such-and-such made with this-or-that (in accordance with the magic FDA definition of “made with”).
“Cheese food” is just cheese that’s been melted and re-solidified. If you’re going to be nitpicky, then every pizza or grilled cheese sandwich uses “cheese food”, rather than cheese, and all “American cheese” is “cheese food”.
The stuff with cheese as one of the ingredients (at some minimum percentage) is “cheese food product”.
We drove through this yesterday. I was driving, Mrs T took the picture. Oh, and it’s google photos so click for the full picture>
If you’re using your phone and can’t read the sign:
Uhhh - incorrect? Any chance of specifying… how? Or what’s about to happen to me?
A little context - this isn’t some tiny junction in the middle of nowhere - this junction is on the M23, the motorway which connects London (and the rest of the country) to Gatwick Airport.
I’d guess it means drivers should ignore what’s painted on the road surface, and stick with the roadside directional signs to find the right exit from the roundabout.
It’s like seeing the unfolded seasonal signs “Bridge ices before road.” Phrased that way makes it sound like there’s a bridge made out of ice and then the road starts.
At my Mother-in-law’s for Mother’s Day yesterday. We were on the porch and I asked her, “hey, how about a quickie?” Then I pointed out her broom/dustpan.
This reminds me of a place nearby where they really SHOULD have markings on the pavement.
You need to be in such-and-such lane to go one way on the highway ahead, and so on. These are all clearly indicated on signs over the road.
Only, the road curves just before the signs. So, a few hundred feet back, it looks like you need to be in the second lane from the right, when really you need to be in the third from the right, or whatever. It’s one of many reasons we rarely use that route to get to the highway.
