Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

In the enlightened county in which I live, it is against the law to post those 16" x 24" signs on the roadway...the ones that advertise houses for sale, new developments springing up like a rosy rash around the ankles of society, political or civic opinions and suggestions, big blowout sales at CrabLand, car detailing, brand new queen size mattresses never used...you can't do it, and code inspectors will remove them and store them for you at the County Office Building.  There are citizens who will remove them from the public right-of-way and trash them, thus filling the landfills with signs.

The signs are not pretty and they detract from the scenery in many a lovely neighborhood.  Sure, developers and real estate people want to sell houses, but the problem with these signs, and with those "LAWNS MOWED TREES TRIMMED SHRUBS PLANTED CALL LENNY THE GARDENER 555-0976" signs that someone climbs a utility pole to post, is that they are free advertising...at your expense.  If you own a newspaper or a radio station or other advertising medium, Fligh-By-Knight Construction could not walk their muddy boots into your office with their latest commercial message and tell you when and how to run their ad for free, but they have no problem sending people around with signs on stakes to hoist upon public roadways.

Believe me, this is not the greatest extant threat to our society, but it struck me the other day when I was driving my auto through the lovely Long Green Valley and saw a telephone pole near the volunteer fire house, a utility pole where one gardener after another has posted signs asking for business.  Since some of these signs are 12 feet in the air, one realizes that either the world's tallest gardener is prowling around with a stack of signs and a fully-loaded Arrow Tack-Master staple gun, or someone is climbing a ladder to post the signs, and that can only lead to trouble and lawsuits.  And view-blocking congestion!  It's like the time I went golfing with my buddy Leon DeForest.  Every time I got off a bad drive, he picked up the little white stands off of which we drove the balls to begin playing a hole, and he began to pile them up.  Why, that pile got so big 
that after the 9th hole, I couldn't see DeForest for the tees!

The best way for these small business types to advertise is the medium that dentists have chosen for centuries.  Word of mouth.  Absolutely right!