A highway department worker recently noticed that new road signs feature route numbers inside an outline of the state of Alabama. Thing is, these signs are for Massachusetts state routes 10 and 141 and are posted in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Oops! Gotta know who was responsible for that one. Even better, the signs were up for about a week and it seems that nobody noticed. Ok, I can see where people might not be familiar with the shape of Alabama (how many can locate Alabama on a map?), but if one lives in Massachusetts it seems that they ought to know what it does or does not look like.
The Boston Globe reports:
The contractor’s estimator, who ordered the signs from another company said ”We didn’t really question it, because the numbers were correct.”
The co-owner of Big E’s Supermarket on Union Street, which sits next to the signs, didn’t spot the miscue, either. ”I looked at them 100 times since they put them up,” he said yesterday. ”This is the first I’ve heard of this.”
And, my personal favorite:
”We thought it was Connecticut turned upside down,” said a woman who works for the contractor.
OK. I had to get the atlas out for that one (after I stopped laughing). If one chops off the top 2/3 of Alabama, it roughly resembles Conneticut, but not upside down. However, a 90 degree anti-clockwise rotation of Alabama does look a little similar to Massachusetts, if you’re not too picky.
So, how did this happen? According to the Boston Globe, the best theory is that the contractor opened the federal manual that guides what state highway signs should look like and sent the example of a state road sign to the sign maker. The manual shows a road sign for Route 21 in Alabama, with the state outline. Note that Alabama is the first state, alphabetically. So all they did was insert the correct numbers.
July 31st, 2005 at 3:16 pm
Even if you did think it looked like Connecticut upside-down, why would a resident of Massachusetts think that THAT was okay?
July 31st, 2005 at 3:42 pm
You can test your knowledge of the geography of the states. (It would admittedly be more challenging if they just gave you the shape, not the name. Perhaps they could spot you Wyoming just to be fair.)
July 31st, 2005 at 3:57 pm
Active diffeomorphism invariance?
August 1st, 2005 at 11:36 am
Cool test. Although, it’s annoying that they mark you wrong even if you’re like 1/3 of a state off! Apparently my state knowledge is an average of 19 miles off.
August 1st, 2005 at 1:14 pm
Actually, I live in MA and this isn’t too bad. If they would move the lower thingies more towards the middle, it would be a little more accurate, but who cares? Assuming, of course, that one ignores Old Cape Cod.
Where was this picture taken?
August 1st, 2005 at 11:35 pm
Raj – The pix is from Easthampton, Mass and is in the Boston Globe.
The test is great! They gave me Kentucky first thing – without any reference point I missed it by 100 miles….my overall average at the end was 5 miles/state. Although I must admit that just exactly where to place Rhode Island (without any reference states nearby) was tricky.
Saucy Wench – *love* the name!