The dining hall at one college I went to had toasters which were effectively vertical conveyor belts: the breads were put on the belt, rotated past the heating elements, and then dropped out at the bottom into a catchment basin. The sign “Please do not toast raisin bagels” was posted because raisins cook at different rates than bread, often fall out, and could start a fire when they hit the heating elements.
This was not the first or the last time I’ve encountered extremely specific signs. These are often handwritten, though some people find the specific problems persistent enough to actually print a sign up.
Some probably represent fairly common problems. Thus a sign reading “Do not dump coffee grounds in the sink” is probably fairly common, because it’s a widespread issue. Most public sinks (in break rooms, etc) do not have garbage disposals in the pipes below the sinks. The problem may be becoming less serious of late, in areas where public composting is becoming more routine. Coffee grounds are perfectly compostable.
“Please do not throw the tarp rocks” also applied to a specific situation. The tarp was necessary to keep water out of archaeological sites in storms. Because the wind tended to be strong in such storms, the tarp had to be fixed down with rocks. If, when the rocks were removed, they were thrown aside, they made dents in the ground, which had a bad effect on future digs (it compacted the soil, making it harder to dig, for one thing).
“Please do not spray paint art on this wall” is reminiscent of the cartoon notice “Do not throw stones at this notice”. Probably the wall in question was near public murals, and was tempting; still, it just seems a bit odd. More like “Respect the art–place gum on the other side”. Understandable, but still odd.
Some admonitions are not posted: and some are not in response to real problems. A warning not to make mobiles from wire bookends, for example (whyever not? It’s a handy way to store the things while they’re waiting to be used, and it’s good for morale, as well) came in a flyer. The same people warned “Do not play soccer with the kickstools”. I personally had never thought of such a thing: and many people almost certainly looked at the kickstools in a new light thereafter.
For today’s more obscure question (also having to do with language), it gives to wonder, how many languages have nonsexed human singular third-person pronouns? I know there are some which do: but researching it is difficult. Such a pronoun is widely called for, to avoid awkward phrasings like ‘he or she’. And English has a long history of importing loan-words to fill such need. Any takers for the search?
treraia 