Stick Figures in Peril

Point Roberts isn’t just an out of the way place with nothing in common with the rest of the world. We share, for example, an interest in tsunamis and their consequences with many others in this world. I don’t know that there’s been a tsunami in recorded history that significantly affected Point Roberts, but there was a tsunami on the West Coast back in 1964 that was generated by an Alaskan earthquake on Easter Sunday, an 8.4 on the Richter Scale. People died in Oregon and in California from that upswelling, so the tsunami concern is a realistic one for emergency planners on this coast.

On a more humorous note, however, I offer an impressive collection of stick figures in peril in the face of a tsunami. It is interesting to note the similarities and differences in these signs. Some, in Thai and/or Indonesian, speak to those country’s very recent experience with tsunamis, if not with stick figures. Others seem to suggest that the response to a tsunami is to move quickly to the right (indicated by the right-pointing arrow); yet others would have you climb the nearest cliff, preferably the one directly in front of you (with the wave directly behind you). Good advice all round, I’m sure. This advice compares favorably with that offered by our own stick figure in peril, seen several places around the Point, including South Beach Road off of APA Road, and Gulf Road in front of The Blue Heron, the source of my photo.

This site is but a tiny segment of the much larger ‘Stick Figures in Peril’ site. The iconography of many of these signs is fascinating, not least because I can’t even begin to imagine what the sign is supposed to be conveying. Don’t push people in wheelchairs into bodies of water wherein crocodiles reside? I would think not; surely that is not its meaning? Nevertheless, I have difficulties with all these signs, although they seem to be much beloved by the signage agencies of all governments. I understand that you can’t assume everybody who needs warnings will speak English (Oh, why not, she thought crankily?), but why would you assume that everyone understands pictographs? Better yet, where is the dictionary of pictographs for us to consult? Is this an international convention? Is the U.N. involved? Why does the tsunami wave look like a big saw blade? Why are the tsunami signs for Point Roberts so much like the ones for Indonesia, except for language, which is supposed to be unneeded because of the pictograph? Ought these pictographs not be culture specific? Or is this to be the final evidence of ‘it’s a small world after all’ (at least if you leave out words).

Because we have a lot of deer around, both here and on the Sunshine Coast, we frequently get signs that feature pictographs of prancing/jumping deer along the roads. (Stick animals in peril?) Are we to assume that these are warnings, specifically, ‘Don’t run into a jumping deer’? Or just information: ‘Hey, watch the jumping deer on this road!’ In any case, although I’ve seen deer in both places, including near the road, I’ve never seen one prancing or jumping. Just another misleading sign, I’m obliged to conclude. Or maybe uncooperative deer.