Vanity license plates seen recently: “OH NO3S” and “UVULA”, the latter on an old yellow-on-blue CA plate with wide letters.
Category: Signs of the Times
Officebot
New design for Optimus Prime?
Or maybe that should be “Office-mus Prime.” 🙂
Spotted at an intersection. Fortunately I had the camera with zoom and time to dig it out before the light changed.
Cryptic Store
Remember that mall mystery from a while back? There was a storefront under construction at the Irvine Spectrum with an “Opening Soon” sign, but no indication of just what store might be moving in. They opened in December, and I keep forgetting to post a follow-up.
As you can see, all is revealed:
…or maybe not.
Unless, of course, you recognize the logos for Hurley International (middle), Converse (right) and…what’s that on the left? With the Nike swoosh on top and the…skateboard? Sunglasses? Something on the bottom?
It’s kind of a throwback to the old medieval-style signs that showed an image instead of a name: the Prancing Pony, for instance (to pull an example from LOTR). Only instead of recognizable images, they’re symbols. Pictograms, if you will, only decipherable if you’re familiar with the symbols already, and they’ve actually thrown an obstacle in the way by muddling the most-recognized logo (Nike).
It seems odd to deliberately use a sign that would make a store hard to name (never mind figuring out what they sell), but I imagine that their target audience is quite familiar with the logos and wouldn’t have any trouble finding the store.
Taco Nobel
I was hoping to get a shot with the lit “TACO” clearly visible and darkened “BELL” fading into the background (closer to how it looked to the naked eye), but my phone doesn’t exactly provide much control over exposure. Still, you can get an idea of how it looked.
Tile Will Call
I wasn’t aware that the term “will call” was used outside the theater industry, but a quick search on the term indicates that yes, it’s used in other industries to refer to a place where buyers can pick up merchandise.
According to Wikipedia, the term’s origin is in the usage, “I will call on you,” in the sense of physically visiting someone.
The Riddle Machine
Pon Farr Perfume
In honor of Valentine’s Day, check out this bizarre sight we found at (of all places) Borders a while back:
Yes, it’s Star Trek perfume inspired by the Vulcan mating urge.
But, wait, there’s more!
Apparently, they want you to believe that Starfleet Medical has isolated the factor that made Captain James T. Kirk a 23rd century Casanova (in SPAAACE!) and have bottled it to sell.