Sign of the day: Irony edition

Or perhaps this should be filed under "defiance edition."

Outside of a shop in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh. 

Sign of the day: Can we teach Sydney to do this?

Municipalities across the pond post public notices about dogs and dog waste A LOT. For instance, our devoted readers might recall the Dog Monsters of Coole Park in Ireland or the classic "Bin the Poo" unhappy face also from Ireland.

This is a much more proactive -- less shame inducing -- approach posted on a fence outside a public garden on the Law Crescent in Dundee, Scotland. 

In the "most useful" category of dog tricks. 

Sign(s) of the day: Warnings of the treacherous backroads

When I bought my Scottish road atlas in a Glasgow bookstore last Wednesday, the clerk asked me if I was heading out of the city for a trip to the Highlands.

"I am," I said. "I'm headed to the Isle of Skye."

"Yeah, there's some beautiful scenery there," he said. "Just beware of the potholes."

"Sure."

"No, I mean it. BEWARE of the potholes." He said it the way characters in Scooby Doo talk about the local haunted castle where all the shenanigans go down.

Clio lookin' sharp at a scenic overlook along the A82.

No problem, I thought. I'll just try and avoid them. That is not possible for two reasons:

1. There's just too many of them.
2. There's no where else to go regardless of whether there's oncoming traffic or not.

And it's not like I'm driving a big car. It's a brand new Renault Clio that had 10 miles on it when I took it out of the car lot. (Thanks Hertz!)

Mr. Bookstore Clerk was absolutely right. Some stretches of the backroads on the Isle of Skye are more potholes than road. I think I saw a car ahead of me disappear into one never to re-emerge.

Occasionally, there are signs: "Road liable to subsidence."

When I first saw that sign, there was a sheep near it. And I just got a quick glance at the words-- you know, on account of trying to stay on the narrow road. So I thought, at first, it said that the road was "liable to sustenance" (for the sheep).

Then after driving through the larger-than-usual potholes, I realized what it must have said.

The other complication is that most of the backroads are barely wide enough for one car, but they have little pull-outs every so often for one car to pull over to let oncoming traffic pass or, in this case, to pass a sheep:

Two cars will not fit on most stretches of Skye's roads. 

 It's quite a dance between cars when navigating the narrow bits between passing places.

To his credit, Mr. Bookstore Clerk was right on all counts, not just about the potholes, because the views were truly spectacular.

The first of many times I pulled over to take snapshots on my drives across the Highlands. And I convinced a German couple to take my picture.

P.S. – I just turned in the rental car and the final tally was 902 miles!

Sign of the day: Advice about dealing with politicians edition

What might be slightly more intimidating than even a ferocious guard dog? Maybe this:

Of course, it also doubles as generally helpful life advice.

The sign was on a gate to a field outside the Castle of Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye. Dunvegan professes to be the longest continuously occupied castle in Scotland. It's also the ancestral home to the Clan McLeod, which is descended from Leod – the younger son of Norse king Olaf the Black, according to clan history.

A view of Dunvegan Castle. 

As it turns out, the crest of Clan McLeod includes a bull between the words "hold" and "fast." So it appears the literal threat of the bull was, in fact, bull.

Sign of the day: Road hazards edition

As I was driving to the Isle of Skye a few miles outside Kyle of Lochalsh, I noticed this warning sign:

“Feral Goats 2 Miles.”

I did not get a photo of that (on account of me driving and all.)

But I was able to get photographic proof that the caution sign, though odd, serves a legitimate purpose.

It's a goat-induced traffic jam. 

And I got that shot because I was no longer driving. Everyone on both sides of this major road (A87) were stopped to let the goats cross. Or meander. Or change their minds and go back to eating grass on the side they just came from. Or all of the above.

Sign of the day: Ryan notices a missing L

No explanation necessary, I hope. Ryan's goofy grin says it all.

(At least five of the eight elevators in the hotel suffer from this same "spelling error." Another just says "P.")

Sign(s) of the Day: Occupied

Ryan mocked me for saying that I was super impressed with the women's bathrooms at Petco Park. I stand by my praise though.

Photo by ANDREA RUMBAUGH

The Padres have invested in a product called Peep No More. These Occupied/Available signs on every door made it easy to quickly locate an empty stall without any awkward peeping, just as the name promises.

Peep No More took part in the MLB Trade Show in 2014 and apparently is now also in AT&T Park in San Francisco. The company recognized as the NCET Microenterprise of the Year, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The Phoenix Convention Center, where I'm attending a conference this week, could totally benefit from investing in Peep No More. On the conference's first day, I myself bent down once to check for the presence of feet and witnessed two embarrassing attempted entries into occupied stalls.

Thank goodness for entrepreneurial women.

Sign of the Day: Should they stay or should they go now?

We're now in Belfast, which is Northern Ireland, which is part of Britain, which means it's is not in the Republic of Ireland, which means voters here will get to decide – along with citizens of England, Scotland and Wales – whether Britain should leave the European Union.

The referendum is next week (June 23). So the campaign signs are prominently displayed, sometimes on top of each other, across the city.

Pole position: This light post in downtown Belfast is having a delightful debate with itself.

Sign of the day: Divine instructions

I'd like to think that angels would have more to do than to patrol lawns like grumpy old men.

Maybe this angel, while lounging on this vault in the historic Glasnevin Cemetery, can multi-task.

Hat tip to Peter Murphy for being the first one to point this one out to me.

Glasnevin technically is called the "Glasnevin Cemetery and Museum" because it features a lot of history, dead people and dead historic people.

Among some cool facts courtesy of our excellent tour guide are:

Pearse's reenacted speech at Rossa's grave.

• The 1.5 million people buried there outnumber those living in Dublin. 


• Daniel O'Connell, of whom President Barack Obama is a fan, founded it as a Catholic Cemetery as part of his fight for civil rights for Catholics.  He is buried in a monument that was once bombed during the Troubles in the 1980s.


• Key figures related to the Easter Rising are buried there, such as Countess Markiewicz and the parents of Joseph Mary Plunkett. (The seven Proclamation signatories executed remain at Arbor Hill Cemetery.)


• Charles Parnell, who was considered "Ireland's uncrowned king" in the late 1800s, is buried in a mount where 11,387 cholera victims also are buried. It is marked with a big rock that says "Parnell."


• Thus, patriotism and religion seem sometimes blurred. While we were there, we saw a reenactment of Patrick Pearse's speech at the interment of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, another patriot. Pearse was a writer of Thomas Jefferson proportions. And he apparently sparked something in the Irish people that day with phrases extolling their "unbreakable strength and spirit" and how the British "think they have pacified half of us and purchased the other half."


• James Joyce's parents are there. 


• There's a tavern, originally called the Gravediggers' Pub, located just outside the gate that was so popular the cemetery had to implement rules:
  

  

  The pub's now called "John Kavanagh's." Great tapas!

1. Employees can't go during work hours. According to our guide, some cemetery workers went there for lunch one afternoon, and later that afternoon one digger (having downed too many pints) fell in the grave he was digging. That's just not fun. 
2. No going to the pub before funerals. Supposedly a family showed up to bury a loved one, but decided to stop at the pub first. They apparently forgot about the funeral and left the coffin sitting around.

This is the former cholera pit where Charles Parnell also is buried.

Sign of the day: The Irish are fascinated by Americans' fascination with Trump

When we are waiting for the bus, Irish people ask us about Trump. When we go to the pub, people ask about Trump. When we are taking a taxi, the driver asks about Trump. When we are on the bus, riders ask us about Trump.

Apparently, the U.S. presidential election already has inspired a major academic lecture at Dublin's Trinity University. And it was called "Stumped." (That would make a great name for the musical too).

Notice that the lecture was sponsored by the Bram Stoker Club? So clearly, the rest of the world sees this campaign as being a horror show.

Postscript: No, I did not attend this lecture. The Irish aren't great at being specific about when events happen. You'll note that the poster says the lecture is "Wednesday – 3 PM." I went back to look it up, and it, in fact, happened Wednesday, April 6. 

Sign of the day, June 10

I have no idea ...

I found this on the main road near the Northern Ireland University-Galway campus. Maybe it refers to this? I don't know and neither does anyone I've asked so far. It might refer to a new engineering building that also has science courses in it. But nothing concrete yet. Will update with any new information.

Sign of the Day

Dog poo makes us all sad.

Beyond the catchy slogan, "Bin the Poo," and its Irish counterpart, "Glan suas e," this has some rather blunt artwork to convey a serious message. Yes, this poor lad, an Irish Charlie Brown-type, has rings of dog feces for eyeballs.

Apparently, a parasite called toxocariasis can cause an infection that can lead to blindness, particularly in children, according to the CDC.

(I came across this sign in one of the neighborhoods we went through on our walk from the city center to St. Patrick's Cathedral.)

So all you dog lovers, don't forget to glan suas e.