# You risked arrest to scrawl THAT illegible cobweb? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 7, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515 "2005-01-07T04:17:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/1 "2005-01-07T04:17:50Z")
You’re badass, you’ve got a big phat widetip marker and you’re not afraid to use it. World gonna know you were there. Uh huh. Makin’ your mark. So I get into the elevator later and the recently resurfaced elevator walls now bear your mark, which looks like the place where someone squished a long skinny spider with curly legs … ?? You’re… “Houoj2f”? Is this stuff only written for an intended audience of other graffiti-slingers who have the Secret Graffiti Decoder Ring, and your exposure of the rest of us to your proud declaration of Houoj2f is incidental and irrelevant to your purposes? I see SMUVk is challenging you for ownership of this elevator. Will the two of you be meeting at dawn on the rooftops, Sharpies at 10 paces? Y’know, I can appreciate the fancy work your brethren with the colored spray paint cans impose on walls and slow-moving trucks and whatnot. The artistry by which they make the letters stand out in 3 dimensions and shimmer and pick up shadows and shades from adjoining letters. But this plain-black squished-spider stuff? I don’t suppose you’d consider leaving the elevator walls alone and going with some really provocative piercings or something instead? ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/2 "2005-01-07T04:23:03Z")
Haha, I know just what you mean. Why even bother if no one can understand it? And why do they all write exactly the same? Where’s the creativity? ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/3 "2005-01-07T04:28:35Z")
Haha, I know just what you mean. Why even bother if no one can understand it? And why do they all write exactly the same? Where’s the creativity? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/4 "2005-01-07T04:30:54Z")
Squares and triangles on metro car windows. You just cost the entire community some ridiculous amount of money to replace that window, which is now unsafe, and for what? To say you know your shapes? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/5 "2005-01-07T04:47:34Z")
> [@Mirror Image egamI rorriM](#): > > Haha, I know just what you mean. Why even bother if no one can understand it? And why do they all write exactly the same? Where’s the creativity? It’s even more fun when you’re copying _yourself_! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/6 "2005-01-07T05:08:56Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Y’know, I can appreciate the fancy work your brethren with the colored spray paint cans impose on walls and slow-moving trucks and whatnot. The artistry by which they make the letters stand out in 3 dimensions and shimmer and pick up shadows and shades from adjoining letters. I agree. The elaborate tags are my favorite form of found art, and it saddens me that the people who make them are either unable or unwilling to find a legitimate means of expressing themselves. Havre has always been the region’s rail hub (and so is dying as the trains slowly collapse in this country) and I’ve seen some really good artwork on the sides of boxcars in the rail yard. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/7 "2005-01-07T06:31:16Z")
Haha, I know just what you mean. Why even bother if no one can understand it? And why do they all write exactly the same? Where’s the creativity? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/8 "2005-01-07T09:59:23Z")
This is quite the apropos thread. Just yesterday, I saw that someone had carved his tag into a paper towel dispenser. Looking closer, I recognized the name: Monty Burns Smithers got a hold of a penknife! Run! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/9 "2005-01-07T13:20:05Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > It’s even more fun when you’re copying _yourself_! 😃 So _copying_ is the new teenage term for that, huh? It’s clever – it does reference reproduction! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/10 "2005-01-07T13:26:15Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > Squares and triangles on metro car windows. > > You just cost the entire community some ridiculous amount of money to replace that window, which is now unsafe, and for what? To say you know your shapes? I bet some smooth talking salesman sold them magic markers that make only squares and triangles - if only the kids had watched TV growing up, the Math Patrol could have saved them their folly and shown them any marker can make those shapes at all. ---
**Author:** ![InvidiousCourgette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@InvidiousCourgette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InvidiousCourgette)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/11 "2005-01-07T13:36:18Z")
Haha, I know just what you mean. Why even bother if no one can understand it? And why do they all write exactly the same? Where’s the creativity? ---
**Author:** ![Kitchen\_Wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kitchen\_Wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kitchen_Wench)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/12 "2005-01-07T13:44:41Z")
Haha, I know just wha… Oh, nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/13 "2005-01-07T13:59:44Z")
Man, fhqwhgads… You’re just making yourself look worse, you know? I mean, everybody’s just gonna feel SORRY for you. (I mean, **I** do…) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-risked-arrest-to-scrawl-that-illegible-cobweb/283515/14 "2005-01-07T16:40:55Z")
A man’s ambition must be small just to write his name on a shithouse\* wall. \*Or elevator, as the case may be.