Without an old-man cane, I fall and hit the ground

I made a return trip to TC Williams to check out the fire damage and came across this sign at the front of the construction entrance.


Pantalones Largos. Awesome.

Nothing really out of the ordinary. Here's a short little guy enlightening the common rambler of the dangers of wearing a cutoff T-shirt into the construction area. All above the board, I'm sure. What caught my attention, though, was the fact that the drawing is a dead ringer for a kid I went to school with. The guy wasn't popular or unpopular, just quiet and nebbish, often seen standing on the social sidelines, carrying himself in a manner very similar to the guy on the sign. And he liked to draw. A lot. Especially in the margins of homework. And in other stereotypically nerdy places to draw. I think I remember hearing he went off to graphic design in college.

I wondered out loud (to the dog) if this kid got a job working for some art firm designing safety posters and was in the practice of drawing himself into his work. Hmmm, interesting theory. But the dog told me it was “crazy talk” and he is right about a great many things.

But I then I recalled another safety sign I had seen at a construction site in between the D’s and the GP’s place downtown. At the time, I was enough of a dipsomaniac (new fave word) to think it was HI-larious and took a picture.



NERDS!

This icon is clearly of a nerd wearing safety goggles. Hell, those could be his regular big old nerd glasses and they just look like safety goggles when reduced to pictographic simplicity. And look at that haircut. Nerd, nerd, nerd.

It’s obvious to me that all those kids who spent their lunch breaks in the art room have found employment in the construction safety sign industry. I can see them now, sitting at their drafting benches, listening to Pinkerton on their Ipods and drawing Rivers Cuomo into their work. Nerds, I applaud you. Finally getting your sweet revenge against us Pat McGee idiots.