A sign of things to come

You say potato and we say potato
You say tomato and we say tomato
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers 1937

Well, jet-lag still has me in it's grip as far as sleep patterns go.
I'm feeling OK but for the last two mornings, I have woken at 4:15am. Yesterday I was determined to defeat it so I finally managed to get back to sleep by about 7:30 and then slept through 'til 11:30!!
This morning I've decided to get up instead and have a try at the blog.
I've had my coffee and toast, loaded with Trader Joe's Ginger Spread (thanks Loretta) and I'm ready to go.

It is said that our two countries are divided by a common language and we certainly have come across many instances of this when we have been over there.
One thing is certain in my mind however and that's how the Americans have made so much better use of our words than we do.
It's little phrases that are used in books, general conversation and on the TV that I love best.
I remember reading in a book, a description of someone who was not entirely gifted in the brain department. It was said that 'He couldn't pour pee out of a boot if the instructions were written on the sole'. We would say something like, 'His lift doesn't go to the top floor' which is very weak in comparison and, at a guess, also originated in the States.
I was watching baseball on TV when the pitcher threw a slider that defied the laws of ballistics and gravity. The commentator said, 'Boy, he really pulled the string on that one' which was about the only way you could explain just how he got the ball to suddenly slow and dip sideways in mid-flight. About the best we'd get from a cricket commentator in the same situation would be, 'Oh Gosh. Did you see that'.

The main point of today's blog is to show you some of the signs and buildings that we saw which made clever use of words to describe products and services that we have seen.
After seeing several instances over the first few weeks, I decided that they would make a good page but unfortunately, I hadn't taken photos of them. I tried to take pictures after that (or got Harvey to do it) and these are the result.

On many cars, it is common to see little stick figures denoting the size of the family.
Two large ones, two, three or more small ones and sometimes an animal or two.
We saw this very poignant one in San Juan Capistrano
Many people make charitable donations and have buildings or even streets named after them.
We saw this one at the Arts museum in Palm Springs which tickled our sense of humour. I mean, just how desperate are you to achieve immortality?
This one we saw everywhere. Can you guess what it's for. It's obvious when you know.
I loved this gravestone. It says far more about the gun than the man.

For the rest of them, I'll just let you have a look and enjoy what you will. Some of them are here just because I liked the look of them rather than for what they said.Outside a used book store


This really was a working vehicle

I liked this row of signs in Julien for their symmetry

This one covered the whole of the side wall of the diner. (It was better than the food!)

I've got two more to upload when I get chance. One is from our first trip to St Louis many years ago and the second was seen in the window of a gay men's dress shop on Santa Monica Blvd.
Later.