We were at Raymond Russell Park, and I spotted this
warning in one of the pavillions.
First of all, noise ordinances are fine by me--nobody
wants to be forced to listen to music (or rap) that
they aren't interested in, especially late at night.
However, the wording of many such laws border on the
ridiculous.
Some of them state that the sound pressure level, which
is measured in C-weighted decibels, is not to exceed
65db at the street in front of an outdoor stage, less
than 50 feet away.
The traffic and even the waitress's farts are louder than that!
But the consultants hired by the city council don't understand
that decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale, which
means that 100db is half as loud as 110, and 90db is one-fourth
as loud, etc.
Anyway, what really makes this sign funny to me is the way
it was written. Look at which letters are larger than the rest.
Why isn't the C in Cut bigger, too?
And it looks like the sign maker was all set to engrave "10:00"
before realizing that he was running out of room for the "PM" part,
so we're left with the awesomely incorrect "10:PM".
I hope the parks department bought spares, because once a
sound engineer with less scruples than me sees this sign it's
going to disappear, and everyone knows that sign makers who
understand the rules of grammar and punctuation charge a lot more.
(Click On The Photo Quietly)
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