There is a lot of scaffolding in New York City. Its everywhere. For bike riders, like me, scaffolding is often a very convenient form of bike-rack. So you often see bikes chained to scaffolding. And you also see signs telling you not to chain your bike to scaffolding.
But what’s up with this one?
One presumes that this is telling you not to chain your bike to this scaffold. But there’s a reason for the existence of punctuation. Although this sign is, I must admit, relatively clear, line breaks are not really punctuation (Or are they? Argument anyone?), so technically: “DO NOT CHAIN BIKES TO SCAFFOLD WILL BE REMOVED AT OWNERS EXPENSE” is like the title to an art installation or some kind of neo-haiku.
I choose to interpret the intention of this message as a mash-up between two ideas:
1. There is something wrong with chaining bikes in general. It is an anti-bike chaining statement.
2. The owner of this scaffolding is going to remove this scaffolding at their own expense.
Thanks buddy! I’m going to continue chaining my bike until you can explain why this is wrong. And although I never really thought very much about who pays for scaffold removal, I’m not sure why I should think about it either…
hmmmm…
…stay tuned!
Tags: bicycle, Language, New York City
There’s a character in Infinite Jest (she’s head of the Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts) who carries a red pen around with her so she can correct public grammar errors and protests grocery stores who refuse to change the express lane check out sign to 10 items or fewer. A red sharpie and some sticky notes or something and you could take this whole n’other level.