Sunday, October 19, 2008

Signs of Intelligent Life

American billiards! Two nasty old geezers huddled over a pool table, what an invitation. This sign is one of many of the dissappearing signboards that used to cover the inner districts of Budapest before the ... er... ever more modern era. Budapest still has a lot of interesting borad signs, particularly along the side streets and outer districts, but public folk advertising is fast disappearing. Some of the older shop and service signs hang outside businesses that have been shuttered for years, whicle some still function anouncing services that are just too unique to categorize.
This one advertises a machinist workshop, repairing sewing machines, household wares, knife and scissor sharpening, and mead grinder blade shaprening, with a picture of a faulty espresso coffee pot tossed in for good measure.
Where would be be without our friends the pidgeons? The Hungaria Pidgeon Center announces its will to be "United for the Pidgeons!" They seem to sell a lot of bird seed. I personally do not want to be united with any pidegons. Nor do I know anybody who would. My personal favorites are dental office signs. Each seems to be unique, and I have taken so many photographs of the good ones that they really demand their own blog post to do the art justice. Here we see a relatively content tooth, but there are also versions that show the agony of dental pain, or even the results of a badly repaired denture or worse. In any case, there is a new blog in town worth visiting for more oddments of Budapest culture: Mokus Pokus is run by Matt E., known to many of us for his runnings in theEnglish language literature circles of Budapest, and this month he's rating some of Budapest's subterannean cultural centers: the Metro holes.

1 comment:

Daphne Wayne-Bough said...

The only sign that made any sense to me was Etteraam. Eating room. But by God, the most handsome waiters in the world, by far.