Things That Don't Make Sense

Traffic control signs where they don't seem to be needed
Every day, I pass by a corner where there is a sign informing people that left turns are not allowed between 9AM and 6PM. Usually, such signs are for the purpose of improving traffic flow during rush hour. But if that's the purpose of this sign, wouldn't it make more sense to have it say something like 3PM to 6PM? Plus, this sign is for people turning onto a major street from a minor one. In no way do these left turners from Livingstone Avenue ever affect Peardonville Road traffic. In fact, I often think the sign should have been turned 90 degrees, because it's the people left turning off of Peardonville there that frequently disrupt traffic since there's no left turn lane, particularly if there happens to be more than one person wanting to turn left.

But the really strange thing is that despite this sign, there still are almost always several vehicles there waiting to turn left. Some people just don't know how to read signs, apparently. Which leads me to my next Thing That Doesn't Make Sense...

People who completely ignore “No Parking” signs
Across the street from my apartment, there are a pair of signs indicating a short stretch where parking is not allowed. And yet, I very frequently see vehicles parked there. In fact, often that entire No Parking zone is completely filled with parked vehicles. Parking is disallowed in certain spaces for a reason, which people don't seem to care about. In this case, there's a fire hydrant right in the middle. And my understanding is that, whether there's signage or not, it is illegal to park near a fire hydrant because in an emergency a fire truck might need ready access to it.

But the real mystery has to be what I see in the parking lot for the city's main park. During the summer, you almost always see someone parked directly in front of a No Parking sign. There's absolutely no way they could have missed that sign, so it's a conscious decision on their part to blatantly disregard the rules. If the city were ever to run low on cash, all they'd have to do is send someone down to the park a couple times a day to issue parking tickets.

Saying “Bless You” when someone sneezes
Now for something that's not traffic related... Why do many people say “Bless You” when someone sneezes? That's one that never made any sense at all to me. It's just something they were told they should do (and why for just sneezes and not coughs?), yet I bet they don't even know why other than saying it's good etiquette or something. Now I have nothing against etiquette and good manners, as long as there's a logical reason for the rules, of course.

While the origin of this action is somewhat disputed, the consensus seems to be that it's mainly a superstitious activity. For example, one ancient belief was that when you sneezed, it was your soul trying to escape and as such, you needed to be blessed to keep it inside. Another was from back in 590 AD, when Pope Gregory mandated blessing sneezers. When someone sneezed, they were immediately blessed in hopes that would keep them from catching the plague that was rampant at the time.

But we don't have the plague to worry about nowadays, and most people who say “Bless You” would scoff at any other superstitious actions, so there's no logical reason why they continue to do so. In my vision of a perfect world that would stop (and people would obey traffic and parking signs too!) but I don't have that sort of control, so I guess I'll just have to put up with it for now.