Oddball signs popping up across nation

Sun Times ^ | November 30, 2004 | Lucero Guerrero

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

With a quick glance, it looks just like any other pedestrian crossing sign -- a yellow, diamond-shaped sign with a person walking.

But a long stare at the sign and there's something strange -- a Hula-Hoop around the pedestrian's body.

Across the country -- and now Chicago -- these unusual pedestrian crossing signs are popping up and leaving people scratching their heads as to who left them and what they mean. The signs have also appeared in New York, Washington, D.C., and even Utah's Arches National Park.

"I figured it was done as a joke," said Paul Puskar, who lives near one of the signs on Chicago's North Side. "If the Hula-Hoop is actually part of the sign I'd like to know what it means. Although I haven't seen any pedestrians with Hula-Hoops walking across the street, I have been on the lookout.

"They would be a great threat to traffic as it would be difficult to hula and walk across the street at the same time, especially while wearing a winter coat."

Decals used

The signs are real pedestrian crossing signs that have been altered by someone slapping on a transparency of the Hula-Hoop.

City officials say they aren't sure what the signs mean, but fans of a Colorado music group may have some idea. Internet blogs and chat rooms that have noticed the signs point to the fans of String Cheese Incident as the main culprit.

The band -- a jam band that plays a mix of rock, blues, bluegrass, funk and salsa -- has adopted the Hula-Hooped pedestrian as its mascot. The group is now on tour and passed through Chicago late last month.

Link to band

According to the band's publicist, the band doesn't condone its fans defacing city signs, but said the tradition dates back to the band's earliest days in the 1990s. It was then that the fledgling band could barely get two dozen people to attend a show. Some of the band's friends decided to do something to generate some interest and fill the empty bars.

"They started to bring Hula-Hoops to encourage people to dance," said Carrie Lombardi, the group's publicist. "People still bring the Hula-Hoops to shows."

Some people credit String Cheese Incident with bringing Hula-Hooping back into the mainstream in the early '90s.

But the stickers could land someone in hot water. According to Chicago city code, anyone defacing a city sign could be hit with a misdemeanor -- a maximum punishment of $500 fine and 30 days in jail.

[RFEngineer]

I haven't really bothered to translate it either, I just love that joke.

[rightwingreligiousfanatic]

01010011 01101000 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100001 00100000 01001010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110011 01101000 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110000 00101100 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 01100010 01101111 01100100 01111001 00100001 00100000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01111001 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110010 01100101 00100001 00100000 00111010 01011110 00101001

[timtoews5292004]

whenever my uncle and I pass a sign like that, we always say "those poor kids." "must be hard on the parents", etc. Cold and heartless I know, but funny, in a dark comedy I'm not really supposed to laugh at that kind of way.

[struwwelpeter]

"Summon turbo-hookers"

[jb6]

That's the ring of debre circling the small planetoids we call the obese.

[struwwelpeter]

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

[Sam's Army]

01000011 01100001 01101100 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110000 01110101 01100010 01101100 01101001 01100011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01110101 01100100 01100101 00101110 00100000 01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01110011 01101001 01100100 01100101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100001 01101001 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01111001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00101110 00100000 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101111 01100110 01100110 01100101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01100011 01110101 01101100 01110100 01110101 01110010 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01110011 01101001 01100010 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01101001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00111111 00100000

[elcapetain]

There are 10 kinds of people in this world: Those that understand binary, and those that don't

Best one I've heard in a long time!

[PaulZe]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who know binary and those who don't

[ShadowAce]

01001001 00100000 01100001 01110000 01101111 01101100 01101111 01100111 01101001 01111010 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01100101 01111000 01100011 01101001 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01100011 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01100101 01111000 01110000 01101100 01101111 01100100 01100101 00101110 00100000 00100000 01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01110000 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101111 01101110 01100001 01101100 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01100001 01100010 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00101110 00100000 00111010 00101001 00100000

[ShadowAce]

01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110000

[texson66]

[roaddog727]

Hey, what about hexidecimal?

[Cyclone59]

Stop that, or I'm telling Mom......

[Sam's Army]

01001111 01101000 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01001111 01001011 00101110 00100000

[TXBSAFH]

Possum on the half shell.

[ShadowAce]

01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101

[stainlessbanner]

Decimal to Hexadecimal Conversion Table

Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex
0	0	32	20	64	40	96	60	128	80	160	a0	192	c0	224	e0
1	1	33	21	65	41	97	61	129	81	161	a1	193	c1	225	e1
2	2	34	22	66	42	98	62	130	82	162	a2	194	c2	226	e2
3	3	35	23	67	43	99	63	131	83	163	a3	195	c3	227	e3
4	4	36	24	68	44	100	64	132	84	164	a4	196	c4	228	e4
5	5	37	25	69	45	101	65	133	85	165	a5	197	c5	229	e5
6	6	38	26	70	46	102	66	134	86	166	a6	198	c6	230	e6
7	7	39	27	71	47	103	67	135	87	167	a7	199	c7	231	e7
8	8	40	28	72	48	104	68	136	88	168	a8	200	c8	232	e8
9	9	41	29	73	49	105	69	137	89	169	a9	201	c9	233	e9
10	a	42	2a	74	4a	106	6a	138	8a	170	aa	202	ca	234	ea
11	b	43	2b	75	4b	107	6b	139	8b	171	ab	203	cb	235	eb
12	c	44	2c	76	4c	108	6c	140	8c	172	ac	204	cc	236	ec
13	d	45	2d	77	4d	109	6d	141	8d	173	ad	205	cd	237	ed
14	e	46	2e	78	4e	110	6e	142	8e	174	ae	206	ce	238	ee
15	f	47	2f	79	4f	111	6f	143	8f	175	af	207	cf	239	ef
16	10	48	30	80	50	112	70	144	90	176	b0	208	d0	240	f0
17	11	49	31	81	51	113	71	145	91	177	b1	209	d1	241	f1
18	12	50	32	82	52	114	72	146	92	178	b2	210	d2	242	f2
19	13	51	33	83	53	115	73	147	93	179	b3	211	d3	243	f3
20	14	52	34	84	54	116	74	148	94	180	b4	212	d4	244	f4
21	15	53	35	85	55	117	75	149	95	181	b5	213	d5	245	f5
22	16	54	36	86	56	118	76	150	96	182	b6	214	d6	246	f6
23	17	55	37	87	57	119	77	151	97	183	b7	215	d7	247	f7
24	18	56	38	88	58	120	78	152	98	184	b8	216	d8	248	f8
25	19	57	39	89	59	121	79	153	99	185	b9	217	d9	249	f9
26	1a	58	3a	90	5a	122	7a	154	9a	186	ba	218	da	250	fa
27	1b	59	3b	91	5b	123	7b	155	9b	187	bb	219	db	251	fb
28	1c	60	3c	92	5c	124	7c	156	9c	188	bc	220	dc	252	fc
29	1d	61	3d	93	5d	125	7d	157	9d	189	bd	221	dd	253	fd
30	1e	62	3e	94	5e	126	7e	158	9e	190	be	222	de	254	fe
31	1f	63	3f	95	5f	127	7f	159	9f	191	bf	223	df	255	ff

[texson66]

For all non-geek speakers, go to this web site BinarytoASCII to see what all the ones and zeroes mean...