I’ve been noticing this sign for days.

ADDITIONAL UNDERCOVER CUSTOMER PARKING

I wanted it for my collection of signs daftly worded or with unintended meanings given by line breaks, juxtaposition, misuse or just the way my mischievous language loving brain reads. Things like …

DANGER MEN

WORKING OVERHEAD

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AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE

CAR MANUALS

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IN EMERGENCY PLEASE ASK AT CUSTOMER SERVICE IF NAPPIES ARE NECESSARY

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When I rode back that way to take the picture, the ADDITIONAL UNDERCOVER CUSTOMER PARKING sign had disappeared. Secret shoppers had to park along with everyone else, or maybe I had imagined the whole thing. Luckily there is Google Street View and there the sign is.

Sadly there is no such tool - yet - to recover the brilliant first line of a story that popped into my head on my walk home last night. So brilliant it burned, so brilliant I was sure I didn’t need to write it down or tell Siri, so brilliant I would definitely remember it this morning.