While staying in Sioux City, I realized I didn’t have the time or energy to make the 5 hour pilgrimage to Iowa City to attend the Most Serene Republic concert I had purchased a ticket for, so I opted for a more, subdued, adventure…
…Sioux Falls!, a brisk 90 miles north on the I-29, and although I heard that Sioux Falls was a pretty “happening” city it couldn’t be further from the truth. It could have partly been the cold but I was in and out of there in a few hours. I did snap a few pics of some of the good and/or amusing signs in the area for your (my) enjoyment, such as the one above. T & A seems to go well with a bottle of booze generally speaking, or a king for that matter, but Sioux Falls doesn’t shy from provocative double meanings as is shown by the name of this lovely convenience store:
Continue reading ‘Signs ‘O’ the Times #4: The Signage of Sioux Falls - Sioux Falls, SD’
VS 
The first time I had a loose meat sandwich was at a Maid Rite franchisee in Phoenix. It was tucked away off Bell in a shopping plaza that had what was called a Waldenbooks and More. It was like a Waldenbooks but instead of being at a mall, it was a stand-alone store – larger than your average Waldenbooks. It was the closet thing to a Borders or Barnes & Noble before they took over and Borders eventually bought up all the Walden’s. I was waiting for hours at this store with my mom for some sort of Walter Cronkite book signing and the Maid Right was the only food in the plaza.
Also known as a Tavern, very exciting a loose meat sandwich is not. The Tavern is like a burger but instead of a patty it’s made with what is basically unspiced taco meat, like a sauceless sloppy joe. I remember thinking the Maid Rite sandwich being not only unimpressive but pretty gross. It was one of those things that you had to grow up on and when introduced to new communities through franchises they don’t necessarily connect. This was confirmed by the fact that all the Phoenix locations (there was another Maid Rite at what was once called Westridge Mall, now Desert Sky) closed, but what I didn’t know was that Tavern was created in Sioux City, IA and then popularized in the area by Maid Rite.
Continue reading ‘The Battle of the Loose Meat Sandwich - Sioux City, IA’
I think I know where they got the wateria from.
Located outside my old hood of Valley Village in NoHo, these signs represent the beauty of juxtaposition. Together they seem to be announcing to all fantasy haircuts that it’s coffee time. Let’s also take a moment to consider how great a haircut must be to embody your deepest haircut fantasy?
Either way I imagine nothing goes together better than a fantasy haircut with a cup ‘o’ coffee, excuse me, a gourmet cup ‘o’ coffee - a fact that is clearly demonstrated by gourmet being written right there on the mug, if you weren’t sure.
The first in a continuing series, inspired by Prince’s 1987 album Sign ‘O’ The Times, of classic signs which are no longer prevelent in todays culture of sign design. Signs ‘O’ The Times will also feature signs of a more questionable nature, like this sign found in Pasadena, CA:
