Tuesday, November 11, 2008

More graffiti near B

One of the great things about the office we moved to a while back, is that we traded life on an Industry Street for more of a residential location which backs up to farms and is criss-crossed by marked walking trails. It makes for a relaxing lunch hour walk on some days.

The interesting this about the below...one has to leave the main street of Podunk and walk 15 minutes past the cow and then corn fields, then the road turns into a farmer's dirt road. Then it turns into a marked walking path, alongside the pasture, before depositing you at the foot of the forest. Then after another 5 minutes of walking through the forest, you happen upon the following:


Non-German speakers, if you know that 'Raus!' = 'get out!' you have the message. Although I suspect they were merely borrowing from the song.

Couldn't really tell what the orange paint message was. It was a bit too weather worn or scrubbed off to be able to read what was left of it under the black paint.

How do you know it was written by a German, beside the obvious fact of it being in German?
-By the excessive use of exclamation points. It's a little difficult to see in the photo, but there are 3 of them there.

Sidenote: I proofread English messages sometimes for my German colleagues. Some messages are written both in German and English at company J. They're always a little concerned when I start removing exclamation points, like I'm somehow diluting their message. Somehow if a message says 'Please turn in the form by Friday!' no one will respond, but if it says 'Please turn in the form by Friday!!!' then compliance is guaranteed. We reached a happy medium that the number of exclamation points does not need to equate between the German and English versions of the same notice. ;-)

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