Odd Signs & Symbols

Here are two different sets of markings we saw on sidewalks this weekend.     This is Grand Avenue, Escondido, California.  There are two events that share the space with the old town shops and restaurants: a regular farmers market on Tuesdays, and a long running friday night car festival called Cruisin' Grand. Maybe the diamonds mark stall numbers, but 105 and 107 were two blocks apart, pointing at odd angles, and I know there would normally be 10 or 12 stalls in that space.   I thought the larger markings said AUTO at first, related to the Cruisin Grand event, but no, they actually say DUCTS.  The word I thought was AUTO is actually (but it's hard to tell) "ATT 10".  Whatever that means. Again, this is part of an ongoing series about the strange markings and codes that surround us on the streets and sidewalks we walk on every day.

I can't say how long ago I first saw weird spray-painted markings on the pavement where construction was gearing up.  Surely, before breaking ground, a construction site needs surveyors to come out and properly mark the space they need to work in, not to mention calling the utility companies to find out where the gas lines and power lines are buried. But these markings are remarkably varied and complex.  Here are some from one of the side roads on my daily commute home... Simple markings like "NO SDGE" are easy.  SDG&E is our local power & gas company, so such a mark would say the area has been cleared of utility lines and pipes.  Your local utility companies would show up on the scripts on the roads near you.  Other markings are just measurements, as in the corners of a rectangle with one corner marked " 12'6" by 36' " to show where the power equipment should begin digging at some future date.   There are none of those easy-to-grasp abbrevi

Most of us only deal with containers of harmless items, from stuffed animals to cookie dough.  But there is a whole iconography of warning labels for different materials.  Acids, explosives, gasses, biohazards, you name it, these things do have to be moved from place to place.  After buying some stamps at the post office this weekend, I turned around and saw this well-organized poster showing so many of these curious patterns. It is crucial for companies handling thousands of packages per hour to have those packages properly labeled, with any necessary warnings shown with graphic ease.   I was impressed with how much information was shown here, and how clearly it was presented.  For extra credit, the very last symbol on the page is the logo of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.  Symbols at every level.