This is a US fire hydrant, the kind I used to wonder at when watching (original US) Sesame Street on German TV as a kid:

Source: Wikimedia Commons

(Warning: 3 more pictures after the cut)

Read more ...

Amersfoort railway station. One of several posts marking a bump in the floor (apparently the future location of the electronic ticket gates), the only one with a sign on it. According to Secunda, “perhaps it means ‘no lying on the floor with your arms and legs in the air’”.

When someone noticed it was amended to “3,50 each, 3 for 10” as originally intended. I don’t think anybody would have wanted to pay one euro for the privilege of buying three jars of honey at once.

A bit disturbing, too. This was on a children’s merry-go-round, of which the rest was decorated with cartoon characters that Disney, Warner Bros., Marvel et al. are unlikely ever to have seen royalties for:

Click the picture to enlarge.

The summer fair has long gone, fortunately, but the big sign with rules that graced all its obvious access points is still worth posting:

Let me draw attention to the most remarkable detail:

That’s not the Dutch spelling. The Dutch word for alcohol is “alcohol”.

I wonder if anybody took it literally and had a beer on the fairground without technically breaking the rules.

The Chinese shop sells this; it took me a while to realise that it doesn’t slime you for all it’s green.

It does help that there’s “Dieters’ drink” next to it— it’s unlikely that that’s the drink of some apparently German people called Dieter.

Remember the silly traffic light? I passed it again, found it useless and confusing again, and decided to at least try to do something about it.

Saturday I asked our friendly neighbour the town councillor who to turn to, and got a name. Yesterday I sent mail to that person: “Dear Mr Traffic Man, Councillor X recommended you; here’s a photo, this is the situation; would it be a good idea to put up a sign allowing cyclists to turn right at the red light, as everybody is doing it already anyway?” This morning when I came back from swimming there was a message from the traffic coordinator (who Traffic Man had sent my mail to), saying “You’re completely right. I’ll order a sign and have it put up.”

Next time someone says in my hearing that people in the town offices don’t listen to the public, I’ll have a story to tell.

I thought at first that this was a lamp for the road-builders to see by, but it turned out to be a lamp-post that someone must have driven into last night. When I came back an energy-watch man was sawing it into one-meter pieces of scrap metal and the road was too busy to take another picture.