So I’m new in town. I’m used to that. Usually it means getting lost a lot and not knowing whether the airport is north or south on the freeway. But Seattle… Seattle has weird signs. Not just misspellings or funky iconography, I’m talking about weird signs. I ran across three of ‘em in just a few hours today.

First up, we have the aggressive PSA. “Litter and it will hurt.” Yow. I suppose it could be worse; it could be “Litter and cops will taser your sorry ass.” No matter how you look at it, it’s a hell of a lot more aggressive than California’s “$1000 fine for littering,” which always suggested to me that it was OK to litter as long as you were throwing money out the window, and Hawaii’s “Please don’t litter.” These folks in Seattle mean business.

And then there’s the ever-popular fireproof hotel. Not only fireproof, but modern and fireproof. Talk about tempting fate! What are the odds that one of this guy’s ancestors painted “unsinkable” on the Titanic? Oh, and bonus points for the hotel name. No chance of a bush fire here!

And finally, this heartwarming sign goes out to all of you poor souls who felt alone in your need to kidnap foreign citizens, pass laws protecting obsolete business models, and abolish habeas corpus. You are not alone!

Having cool mountain views is one thing. But this sunset was something else altogether. My crappy camera doesn’t do justice to the colors that were on display here; it was really spectacular.