Normative Signs: The Poetry of "Ought"

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.