A week ago I blogged about “Those Signs.” Among other things, I wrote that “they’d be at home anywhere: on a suburban golf course, alongside an interstate. The ones I’ve seen so far sit uneasily on the landscape, sharp-angled against the contours of the land . . .”
A friend tipped me off to the sign at the West Tisbury library. She doesn’t like the signs, but she does like this one. So do I. Unlike the other ones I’ve seen or heard about, this sign has a conversation going with its setting. The other messages make me groan. This one makes me grin. Here it is:
Above the entrance to the periodical room, West Tisbury library
As I left the library after taking the picture, a fellow was coming in, camera in hand. He asked me where the sign was — you know, the signs that have been in the papers? I gave directions: turn left, when you get to the main desk turn right and look up. He thanked me.
I suspect he’s on a treasure hunt, and that he’s not the only one. The signs are scheduled to come down today or tomorrow. Maybe the conversations about them will continue. I’m listening.
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 
My partner, the medical librarian for a hospital in Santa Fe, has had the fantasy for years of putting up a sign over the library door: I DON’T KNOW AND I DON’T KNOW HOW TO FIND OUT. The message may show the sense of irony here, and a difference between some Massachusetts towns and New Mexican ones. As may the fact that he only fantasizes about his sign.
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If he makes it, I know a few librarians who would love to have a copy. A variation might be I DON’T KNOW AND I WANT YOU TO FIND OUT FOR ME.
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