Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Linguistic dexterity (London)

Three decades ago, one would see on the London Tube (underground) a sign just over the door that said: Obstructing the doors can cause delay and can be dangerous.  Someone came along and scratched out the appropriate letters so that the sign then read: Obstruct the doors cause delay and be dangerous.
Note:  I do not approve of vandalism, nor incitement of trouble-making behaviour.  This is purely an observation of what clever things one can do with language just by moving/deleting a few letters, like the matchsticks puzzles where moving one stick (or two) can change the whole display altogether.

(London, 1977)

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