Driving home from the grocery store just now I was waiting at a red light and was struck by a sign at that intersection. (And boy did that hurt, Dragan). The village library is to the right, which is what the sign indicated. The interesting part was the sign consisted entirely of symbols -- an arrow pointing right and one of those international symbol things showing a person holding a book.

How come? Why not just "Library" instead of the symbols? Aren't people who might be interested in going there likely to understand English? There is a substantial Hispanic population, so maybe bilingual (probably unnecessary in most cases), but it's not like this little library has books in all the languages of the world. Almost everything is in English, with a small Spanish section. Very curious.

Another sign I noticed near here recently was in front of a drive-up fast food place. The sign out front said "0.99¢ Specials." Do they not realize they are offering to sell things for less than a penny? (And how would they make change?)

Stuff like this always puzzles and amuses me in equal measure. I remember a discussion about this online years ago, possibly on the CompuServe FoxForum. Some I remember, at least a couple courtesy of Dan Freeman ---

How come abbreviation is such a long word?
How come you drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?
How come they put fresh dates on yogurt and sour cream? Is that the date it goes good?

Additions encouraged!