#295: M.I.A.

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

These quirky distressed numbers on Baltic Street disappeared from the wall a few years ago, and I still miss 'em.

#296: Tiny Moon

Chinatown, NYC

#297: Dull Lights, Big City

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

Goofy and mismatched, these numbers look like vaudeville by way of the industrial revolution. I always wonder about the mischievous culprit behind these oddities. Was it truly all there was, or is there some grand design behind it all?

#298: Perplexing Problems

Grad school snapshot: this one from R.G. Collingwood's The Idea of History, one of my books to read for the week for the architecture seminar I'm taking called The Aesthetics of Decay. I've been busy reading a couple books a week, teaching two classes, grading papers, writing my thesis, polishing my novel, and looking up words like "aporetic." You can see why I've taken up ice hockey.

#299: All That Glimmers

West Village, NYC

#300: Gamblin' Man

Las Vegas, NM

Vegas. Where else?

#301: Beware Dogs

Upper West Side, NYC

Thanks to what seems to be a customary lackadaisical attitude toward punctuation on local signs, it's unclear if this warning is telling me to beware of dogs or if it's telling the dogs to beware. Or perhaps it is announcing an interesting new type of dog: the beware dogs. Whatever the case may be, I'm glad it has at least committed to the notion of dog and not the more mysterious "dog," as has been woefully suggested elsewhere. You've got to start somewhere, right?

#302: A.I.R. BLDG

Gowanus, Brooklyn

Not really sure what the A.I.R. is all A.B.O.U.T., but the hand lettering on this sign is pretty good-looking.

#303: Office Around the Corner

Upper East Side, NYC

#304: Balconies

Upper East Side, NYC