So yesterday's post got me thinking...

There are little signs all over my workshop area at work. They've been there longer than any of us that are currently are on the job. So none of us really know what they mean, these signs. Various little sayings or observations, most of them rather esoteric. "Tina Turnover" which hangs upside down. The rules for taking care of Mogwai's (No bright lights, etc) And then there are these two.

I get the bugs scatter. Makes sense in our line of work. We do a lot of work in the dark. What happens when the lights come on?

But the other one has always made me wonder...where in the hell did that come from? I'm a reasonable mom, get off MY CASE (Exclamation point implied). First off, mom? We aren't exclusively male, however, most of the females that are in our little rag tag group of misfits are students. Even in the distant past we can't put together any female holding a professionals job (some of our supervisors have been around long enough to remember).

So where'd it come from? Was it a code phrase for something else? We use those a lot since we're probably the least PC lot on the entire staff of the university, and instead of simply shutting up, we'd much rather come up with different ways of saying un-PC things. We host the Special Olympics, and that's a hotbed for code phrases. If it was one of our code phrases, what the heck were they trying to convey?

The odds on favorite though was that it was overheard somewhere on the job. And then summarily mocked again and again to the point where it was immortalized on this makeshift placard (not unlike our "quote wall" in our main office across campus). So considering that this is the most likely source, I can't help but wonder about the circumstances that someone uttered this very aggressive group of words. What event was this at? Odds are a commencement, or perhaps an athletic event. Why were they close enough to our little hidey holes that we heard them? What actually happened.

The sad thing is that I'll never, ever know. And I see that sign every day I'm at work. Such is my life of every day mysteries that can never be solved. Even Sherlock Holmes would be flustered. He'd look at Watson and he'd say "Let's get the heck out of Dodge."

Yeah, I mixed cultures. I do that.