Normative Signs: The Poetry of "Ought"

File this one under “obviously good advice.” This sign is posted at a construction site, 43 floors above the streets of Toronto.

Rather amusing that the specifics — 100% tie off beyond fence — are written so small as to be practically a footnote.

Thanks to Eric Fruhauf for the photo.

This one comes to us from the hallowed halls of McGill University.

It is unclear just how official this sign is, but how emphatic it is is less unclear.

The point it makes is no matter of mere manners: it’s a serious pragmatic point about the frailty of plumbing systems (especially, I dare say, at a venerable institution like McGill, where a lot of the buildings are well past their ‘best-before’ date.) But I wonder how much of that serious point is undercut by the jokey reference to not flushing the NY Times?

Thanks to Prof. Jacob Levy for sending the picture.

This one is more of an instruction than a normative sign, but its content reflects good advice given the low temperatures here in Toronto today, so I’m posting it.

Thanks to my former student, the mystery man known as “C”, for sending me the picture.