Hey Boston, What's Your Sign?

When Bostonist read last week that some road signs for state routes in Easthampton were accidentally set against the silhouette of Alabama, we thought it was amusing: Alabama is funny, that's all there is to it, and Alabama road signs in our deep-blue Commonwealth are even funnier. We learned from the news today, however, that at least one man fails to see the humor, not only in the Alabama signs but in any wrong, blocked, or missing marker. Paul Slickman, of Arlington, has embarked on a mission to document or complain about every screwy sign in Boston.

When we first moved to this fine burg, we shared Slickman's outrage; the signage, or lack thereof, seemed purposely designed to ward off outsiders. The changing street names and signage customs of abutting cities and towns made matters worse. (We recall, for example, the time when our cousin witnessed a traffic accident and called 911. When she told the operator the Cambridge intersection where it happened, she was told, exasperatedly, that there were at least five intersections of streets with those names in the Boston area.) But now we, like the drivers quoted in the story about Slickman, don't much care. We know our way around and have lived here long enough to stop empathizing with outsiders. (In fact, we get a perverse thrill when our father visits from Oregon and calls us from his rental car to curse the city planners and municipal services for their laziness.) At times, we're even charmed by the Boston labyrinth. Is this crazy? Readers, Bostonist asks you: Do you feel a swell of pride when Washington Street inexplicably becomes Hyde Park Avenue (while a new street at a different angle claims to be Washington)? Do you feel confident that the way to say "Fourth" in Italian is "Sciarappa" (since that's the street in East Cambridge between Third and Fifth)? Or is embracing this civic chaos just as foolish and retrograde as Bostonist's lingering love for the old Sunday liquor laws?