"Following Directions" - May 14, 2021

[femullen]

After two weeks at sea, I am finally ashore.

Still wobbly on the sea legs, though. How about Jameson to steady the pins.

[Beth C]

Grid is done, meta not so easy this week. Still working on it. Plenty of time, though (famous last words)!

[JeanneC]

OK, my weird sense of humor had me chuckling about this for about 70 miles.

We stopped at a rest stop on the way back from the Keys. In the Men's rest room, above and to the left of the hand dryer and sink was this sign:

hands free.jpg

Now surely I cannot be the only one to have ever marveled at the irony of this and the futility of announcing that nothing there needed hands except perhaps to read the sign? I'm not being insensitive mind you, just gobstruck that this was the only information provided. What exactly would you get from reading that sign if you were not sighted?

The only thing that might be less helpful was a similar type sign on the waffle iron at a hotel breakfast that read in English and Braille "DO NOT TOUCH WAFFLE IRON IS VERY HOT" (and I'll bet you somewhere that sign exists!)

What are the dumbest signs people have seen? Given our collective senses of humor there have had to be those that made you go "WHAT"

Not to be cruel, but drive up ATMs also have Braille lettering. I imagine that is so the ATMs serve a multipurpose. However, it doesn’t seem very safe to me.

[Jace54]

This one appears to be above my pay grade.

[steveb]

OK, my weird sense of humor had me chuckling about this for about 70 miles.

We stopped at a rest stop on the way back from the Keys. In the Men's rest room, above and to the left of the hand dryer and sink was this sign:

hands free.jpg

Now surely I cannot be the only one to have ever marveled at the irony of this and the futility of announcing that nothing there needed hands except perhaps to read the sign? I'm not being insensitive mind you, just gobstruck that this was the only information provided. What exactly would you get from reading that sign if you were not sighted?

The only thing that might be less helpful was a similar type sign on the waffle iron at a hotel breakfast that read in English and Braille "DO NOT TOUCH WAFFLE IRON IS VERY HOT" (and I'll bet you somewhere that sign exists!)

What are the dumbest signs people have seen? Given our collective senses of humor there have had to be those that made you go "WHAT"

Not to be cruel, but drive up ATMs also have Braille lettering. I imagine that is so the ATMs serve a multipurpose. However, it doesn’t seem very safe to me.

Braille on the drive-thru ATM makes sense if you consider that the blind person might be in the back seat of the car and not want to divulge the PIN to someone else to carry out the transaction. As for the rest room sign, well, blind people need to pee, too.

[TeaJenny]

I must be directionally challenged. I feel like I'm so close, but going around in circles. Isaac, another round.

[whimsy]

Yup, still with the gibberish --
--unless maybe the answer's in Lapine.

[Susan Goldberg]

I am so psyched out by this. When I see three stars and fewer comments than usual, I become super intimidated. I’m putting it aside now to look at it freshly later!

[Alan H]

solved. one of those keep trying things and you'll eventually get it metas. [but you'll have a lot of gibberish in your notebook along the way].

[Wendy Walker]

. [but you'll have a lot of gibberish in your notebook along the way].

I'm at three pages thereof and still counting!

[Henry Paul]

The Mrs and I are hanging at the bar with Isaac. More than one person needs to rate the meta so that I can either (a) be continued to be depressed that it's a Level 1 and I'm stumped or (b) be encouraged that it's > 1 and therefore I'm supposed to feel depressed 'cuz it's difficult.

[Wendy Walker]

The Mrs and I are hanging at the bar with Isaac. More than one person needs to rate the meta so that I can either (a) be continued to be depressed that it's a Level 1 and I'm stumped or (b) be encouraged that it's > 1 and therefore I'm supposed to feel depressed 'cuz it's difficult.

It has subsequently gone up to a Level 3. Not that that is of ANY USE WHATSOEVER to those of us on the ship!
Maine Marge, I've got a ton of annuals -- want to help me plant them on the sun deck?

[CPJohnson]

I am ashore, after producing lots of gibberish. I kept thinking, "What else can I try?"

As for signs, my favorite is a traffic sign I saw frequently in my childhood in Alabama and Texas....SLOW CHILDREN PLAYING. (It needed more punctuation.)

[jrdad]

Ashore finally, after numerous false starts; clever, classic Shenk.

[Dplass]

Ashore

[KDubs]

Solved the grid (with only a couple of Googles, which is a big thing for us with a Shenk puzzle!), but still searching for a lead on the meta. Hubs and I are celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary today (been together nine years), and crosswords were one of the first things we ever did together. I think it was about five years ago we discovered meta crossword puzzles, so it’s kinda special we have one to work on for our anniversary. We’ll keep at it and hope to solve this one to commemorate four years of marriage!

Many happy returns!
I, like you, celebrated my anniversary yesterday. But I knew better than to try to peek a glance at the puzzle until today. My better half is usually very tolerant of my interest in crossword puzzles - but I didn't want to push my luck!

Happy anniversary!! May 13 sure is a good day for love I’m so glad metas are something hubs and I work on together — I couldn’t solve most of them by myself so I’d end up spending many hours alone every weekend trying to solve them, haha!

[JaneGummy]

On shore, I had the mechanism figured out but needed Boharr to point me in the right direction. Rookie mistake. There is always next week!

[iggystan]

I believe I'm on shore, after swimming with the rabbits for a while. Nice construction.

[Eric Porter]

I've washed up on shore after following directions. Now it makes sense.

[DrTom]

OK, my weird sense of humor had me chuckling about this for about 70 miles.

We stopped at a rest stop on the way back from the Keys. In the Men's rest room, above and to the left of the hand dryer and sink was this sign:

hands free.jpg

Now surely I cannot be the only one to have ever marveled at the irony of this and the futility of announcing that nothing there needed hands except perhaps to read the sign? I'm not being insensitive mind you, just gobstruck that this was the only information provided. What exactly would you get from reading that sign if you were not sighted?

The only thing that might be less helpful was a similar type sign on the waffle iron at a hotel breakfast that read in English and Braille "DO NOT TOUCH WAFFLE IRON IS VERY HOT" (and I'll bet you somewhere that sign exists!)

What are the dumbest signs people have seen? Given our collective senses of humor there have had to be those that made you go "WHAT"

Not to be cruel, but drive up ATMs also have Braille lettering. I imagine that is so the ATMs serve a multipurpose. However, it doesn’t seem very safe to me.

Braille on the drive-thru ATM makes sense if you consider that the blind person might be in the back seat of the car and not want to divulge the PIN to someone else to carry out the transaction. As for the rest room sign, well, blind people need to pee, too.

Oh absolutely, the "what goes up must come down" has the corollary "what goes in must come out". BUT it seems rather odd to have a random sign that a sight challenged person would have to feel for, one specifically pointing out the relative safe and sanitary method of washing and drying hands, which requires you to scan the bathroom wall for AFTER washing your hands? Pretty much obviates any of the benefit of handwashing. If the person had a friend/aide there to assist them with that part of the ritual then the friend/aide should point out what the sign said and perhaps assist the person with what would be a tricky task in a bathroom they were not familiar with.

I completely concur on the ATM, and in truth they probably make ALL ATM's that way, not just the drive throughs, so sight challenged individuals can use them with ease. I mean might as well do them all because you don't know where they will end up. At my bank, at least, the machines in the lobby are not really different from the drive through except for their location.