Posted on 11/30/2004 8:43:04 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
With a quick glance, it looks just like any other pedestrian crossing sign -- a yellow, diamond-shaped sign with a person walking.
But a long stare at the sign and there's something strange -- a Hula-Hoop around the pedestrian's body.
Across the country -- and now Chicago -- these unusual pedestrian crossing signs are popping up and leaving people scratching their heads as to who left them and what they mean. The signs have also appeared in New York, Washington, D.C., and even Utah's Arches National Park.
"I figured it was done as a joke," said Paul Puskar, who lives near one of the signs on Chicago's North Side. "If the Hula-Hoop is actually part of the sign I'd like to know what it means. Although I haven't seen any pedestrians with Hula-Hoops walking across the street, I have been on the lookout.
"They would be a great threat to traffic as it would be difficult to hula and walk across the street at the same time, especially while wearing a winter coat."
Decals used
The signs are real pedestrian crossing signs that have been altered by someone slapping on a transparency of the Hula-Hoop.
City officials say they aren't sure what the signs mean, but fans of a Colorado music group may have some idea. Internet blogs and chat rooms that have noticed the signs point to the fans of String Cheese Incident as the main culprit.
The band -- a jam band that plays a mix of rock, blues, bluegrass, funk and salsa -- has adopted the Hula-Hooped pedestrian as its mascot. The group is now on tour and passed through Chicago late last month.
Link to band
According to the band's publicist, the band doesn't condone its fans defacing city signs, but said the tradition dates back to the band's earliest days in the 1990s. It was then that the fledgling band could barely get two dozen people to attend a show. Some of the band's friends decided to do something to generate some interest and fill the empty bars.
"They started to bring Hula-Hoops to encourage people to dance," said Carrie Lombardi, the group's publicist. "People still bring the Hula-Hoops to shows."
Some people credit String Cheese Incident with bringing Hula-Hooping back into the mainstream in the early '90s.
But the stickers could land someone in hot water. According to Chicago city code, anyone defacing a city sign could be hit with a misdemeanor -- a maximum punishment of $500 fine and 30 days in jail.
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01110111011010000110010101101110001000000111100101101111011101010010000001110100
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ff
I remember in the late 70's and early 80's in Maryland around DC - many of the cross walk stick people became cone heads.
there's been a sign like that on the street behind the art building at my university for YEARS. I graduated 2003, and it was there when I got there in 1997. Yes, I know I just listed a six year span. I stayed in to get my masters. I didn't major in registration.
01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110011 01101000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 00110001 00110000 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101100 01101100 01100001 01110010 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01100011 01101000 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 00101110 00101110 00101110
01010010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01100100 01110101 01101101 01100010 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101111 01100100
01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00111111
After seeing their name, and the thread title, this jpg seemed appropriate.
01000010 01100101 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01100111 01110101 01100101 01110011 01110100 00100000 00101101 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01000011 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01000110 01100001 01101001 01100001 01110010 01100010 01100001 01101110 01101011 01110011 00101110
01010011 01110101 01110010 01100101 00101110 00100000 01000010 01101100 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101 00101110 00100000 01000111 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101000 01100101 01100001 01100100 00101110 00100000 00111011 00110000 00101001
Hah! I found a typo. It should read:
01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110011 01101000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 00110001 00110000 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101100 01101100 01100001 01110010 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 00101110 00101110 00101110
How do you write "please stop" in binary?
01000010 01100101 01100011 01100001 01110101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101100 00100000 01110111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101110 01100101 01110100 00100000 01100010 01101100 01101111 01100111 01110011 01101001 01110100 01100101 00111111
There are 10 kinds of people in this world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't
I love the sign in my neighborhood, "Slow Children Playing" i know its wrong, but i giggle everytime i pass it, i imagine kids in slowmotion playing catch or something.
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