Advanced Vocabulary Required to Read Rest Stop Rules

What is a rest stop? Do travelers need directions on how to use one? Apparently, we do.This sign was made for New Mexico's highway drivers. Will drivers who stop read the sign? I didn't notice anyone - other than me - pause to look at the sign. The makers of this highway posting would have benefitted from advice from an advertiser or copywriter. The information here is not accessible to the masses.                        

As with Power Point slides, less is more. There is so much information printed on this metal board that it's hard for the reader to know which rule is most important. Also, the sign is at the top of a post that is several feet high. Unless you're six feet tall, the sign is not at eye level. When you look at it, you see lots and lots of writing. Why didn't the makers use bullet points and short phrases?

Since most people that stopped didn't look at the sign at all, my husband and I saw several people breaking Rule #2. They let their unleashed dog out of their car. The dog pooped on the dirt, and the owners walked away, leaving the mess to stink up the rest area and to be a hazard for any child allowed to run around the rest area after a long drive in a car seat. Rule #2 is to show consideration to others. Of course!

Pictures, such as those shown in Many Englishes, my sister blog, might be more effective than word-filled signs. How many people know what a trash receptacle is? What are firearms, poisonous snakes, and poisonous insects? What is the meaning of inhabit? What are consumption, defacing, vandalizing, sewage, and salvaging? There are lots of advanced level words here. Just keep on reading signs to build your vocabulary!

Smoking Only at the Curb

Last year while visiting San Francisco, my husband and I stopped to get a sandwich at an Italian deli. We sat at a small table outside, and I noticed this sign which I'd never seen in San Diego.

Although it has the symbol of no smoking with a red circle around the silhouette of a burning cigarette, the wording of this law seems to be focused on the rights of the smoker.  It says where smoking can be done: at the curb or - if no curb - at least 15 feet from any opening into or out of the store.

So, what's a curb?  It's the raised cement edge - usually created by the sidewalk - next to which cars park or pull up to load or unload passengers.  Below is a photo of a storm drain (where the water goes when it rains) in the street. Above the storm drain in the top third of the photo is the raised cement curb.