Changing Way

I was going back through some photos from last year, and found one that I’d taken of this modified sign while stopped by the signal. I’ve been meaning to crop and post it, so here it is.

The sign is on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, as you’re going from Faulkner Hospital, just before you get to the rotary. Perhaps I shouldn’t say “as you’re going,” since you’re probably stopped at/by the sign/signal.

I am surprised that this street sign has yet to inspire a country and western song called “Ardent is a One-Way Street.”

Yesterday was an interesting day as far as storefronts go. On the same walk along Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale, I snapped this sad sign of the Boston real estate times. I also noticed that the location where the Aldrich Dry Cleaners used to be, before it moved to a larger place a little further away from Aldrich Street, has been taken by… another dry cleaners. Are we particularly messy in Roslindale, that we need so many dry cleaners?

Later in the day, we went to Brookline, where we encountered another sign that times are tougher than they were a few years ago.

San Diego does signs rather well. My favorite is this one from the old town, forbidding food and drink in the restaurant.

It’s a close thing between that sign and the one in the photography museum forbidding photography which, for obvious reasons, I did not photograph. I also enjoyed the sign telling us not to feed ourselves to the plants, and the sign telling us not to feed anything to the waterfowl or fish.

This is Clearview, the typeface that is poised to replace Highway Gothic, the standard that has been used on signs across the country for more than a half-century. I just found, rather late and via Reddit, an interesting NYT article about the development of Clearview. Although I like Clearview as a font, Highway Gothic kicks its ampersand when it comes to having a cool name.