Re: psychoceramics: Sign Guys and Local kooks

[Andrew C Bulhak <acb @ cs.monash.edu.au>]

[Bruce Ediger]
> 
> Steve Lamont's "Sign Guy" puts me in mind of a Local Kook in the town
> I grew up near.  This was Kirksville, Missouri, USA,  in the mid- to
> late-70s.  There was an old coot that had a fix-it shop located on a
> major intersection just outside of town.  Lots of traffic went by, as
> Kirksville is a hub for the surrounding even-more-rural areas.
> 
> The owner of the Fix-it shop put up one of those movable-letters signs
> labeled "THOT BORD".  He would change the THOT BORD messages at least
> once a week.  As I recall, every message had either a Patriotic or 
> Christian theme.  In that part of the world, Patriotic means a mixture
> of uncritical devotion to Conservative leaders, and a distrust of Big
> Government.  Christian equates to the practices of the Southern Baptist
> church.  I can recall my mom, a devout Presbyterian, getting very upset
> about some of the implications of the THOT BORD messages.
> 
> I think that study of enough of these Sign Kooks would yield common
> forms of behavior, and reveal underlying common philosophy or mental
> illness.
> 
> On a national scale, there's a guy who travels to major televised sporting
> events in the USA with a sign that reads "JOHN 3:16".  He will sit behind
> home plate at baseball games so that the sign is clearly visibile when
> the outfield cameras look over the pitcher's shoulder during delivery.
> I've also seen him wearing a large, baggy tee shirt labeled "JOHN 3:16"
> at televised golf tournaments.  When the tee vee camera pans across the
> crowd, he'll raise his arms to make the message read clearly.

In Melbourne, there was once an older gentleman who would
travel around the city with a shopping cart, each side of which was
covered with a sign reading something like "IF YOU DON'T REPENT YOU
WILL BURN IN HELL FOREVER", along with similarly dire warnings about
fornication and other evils.  He also carried a sign with a similar
message.  All the signs were footnoted with Bible citations.  

I once approached him and he gave me some pamphlets and a tape.  I
didn't look at these closely, and have since lost them, though.

Oh, and last year, there appeared posters at Monash University,
on which the heading read "SEX !!!" in large letters, and below 
there were warnings about the evil of thinking impure thoughts
and calls to follow Jesus.  I think I have one of those somewhere.

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