This sign, a riff on the Borg’s mantra,made me laugh. I always just point out the Borg dies in the end. But I laugh because where I grew up, we competed against Fertile in sports and other competitions. More amusingly, Fertile happens to be just about 25 miles from Climax, another town we competed against. When you’re in high school, such things are hilarious and even to this day, pranksters add distance to Fertile signs to the “You are Entering Climax” sign and vice versa. By the way, whoever ordered “You are entering Climax” is my hero. That sign is gone now, replaced by the much less amusing “Climax Pop. 300” sign. Not that we weren’t without our own embarrassing names. A few miles out of town, there used to be a glorious road sign, “Bullshit Valley, Next Left” That was the name of the valley. That was the sign. When I was home this summer, I saw it has been “cleaned up” and now reads, BS Valley. I was disappointed. I did not live in Bullshit Valley, alas, and my dad only took that left hand turn every few years just because it was a pretty route, though it was gravel not tar. The road to Bullshit Valley is paved now. I am sure there’s a metaphor there somewhere.
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