- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
NO LOTERING
The sign had a typo. I spot other people's typos quickly -- my own not so much -- and this was definitely a typo.
I had stopped by an auction last week at the Salvation Army gymnasium on the corner of Sprigg and Good Hope, but couldn't find any convenient parking place near the building.
So I parked on the east side of Sprigg on Good Hope in the block that is home to the well-kept Meyer Supply complex and a lot of other buildings that are wholly lacking in curb appeal.
As I walked to the auction I noticed on one of the ramshackle buildings a hand-painted sign on the boarded up storefront.
"NO LOTERING," it ordered.
I know this is a typo and I'm fairly certain I know what the person who painted this meant.
They intended to write NO LOITERING. They missed an "I."
Basically, they wanted to say "No Standing Around Doing Nothing Or Dealing Drugs Or Casing The Neighborhood On This Public Sidewalk In Front Of This Building Unless Of Course Your Shiftless Be-Hind Has Bought Something In This Store Which Is Highly Unlikely As It Is All Boarded Up."
Thankfully a word like Loitering exists that essentially summarizes this type of situation. This is a good thing. If the writer misspelled half the words in a two-word proclamation, just imagine how many typos he would have had in a 43-word warning? I bet at least 10.
Of course the typos, would just compound the problem that whomever owns this property was trying to keep from happening. Those who like to loiter on street corners in front of boarded up storefronts are likely not the greatest readers in the world. They probably never won a spelling bee or aced an English exam. They might not even know what the word loitering means.
I can only imagine how long it would take them to read -- and understand -- a 43-word decree telling them not to stand in front of a building if that proclamation had a dozen or so typos. I don't think ten or fifteen minutes would be unexpected if, for instance, they had to figure out what a "pubic sidewok" was.
In effect, the people who this sign is targeted at, might have to loiter while they tried to understand the meaning of the sign.
So the use of the word loitering is much better. Or it is when it is spelled correctly.
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