New Coat of Weirdness

For some time now, a chain link fence on Hicks Street near Union has been the home of one of the stranger homemade "Curb Your Dog" signs in Brooklyn. Painted in splotchy, bulbous white letters was the message "Please Curb Your Pet or Pets." It's the "or Pets" that made the sign peculiar. Did the signmaker think people walking more than one dog would consider themselves exempt from the sign's charge, simply because they didn't have a "pet," but had "pets"?

I have to think the person who put the sign up (surely the owner of the backyard the fence protects) has been queried about the odd sign over the years, but chose not to go to the bother of altering the message.

But now there's a new sign up, and the wording is exactly the same. Given the chance to create a neater, clearer sign, the painter has kept the unnecessary "or Pets" AND written it in white, splotchy letters again. In fact, the sign is even more illiterate. There's an unneeded dash between "Curb" and "Your," and "Pets" is now spelled "Petes." Certainly the author must know that the plural of "pet" is not "petes."

So, to review: "Please Curb—Your Pet or Petes." Scan that.