This picture was taken yesterday in Mirabel, Quebec. There was some discussion of its location at reddit, where we are assured that in France, stop signs say "Stop" instead of "Arret." Link -via reddit
(Image credit: benim ergani)
Obsession is an apt term. There is a higher proportion of French grammar nazis than there are English grammar nazis.
The English are more forgiving of people who use English idioms incorrectly. Often, the French will tear you a new one if you get it wrong, or simply ignore you.
Again, they're nbot all like that. There's just a higher proportion of nitpickers.
Steeliecat: Well, there _is_ a tendency in Quebec to use French in situations where people in France just use common English abbreviations or words. French people visiting Quebec always have a ball pointing out the often intelligible but ultimately weird and unidiomatic (in France) translations that Quebecers come up with ;-).
It's been a while since I've experienced a hard winter -- thank Frith! -- but it makes sense to me that the wind, blowing from one direction, could coat a sign like this.
My dad took a similar photo after an ice storm here in Kansas. And Miss Cellania is absolutely correct, at least in our particular case. We had a very nasty and devastating ice storm that coated everything last blade of glass. When the sun melted the metal just a bit and then later the temperature dropped again it created a frozen ghost of the sign. Very cool!
"quebec is the only place in the world where stop sighns don’t say stop"
Where did you get this from? Many countries around the world do not use STOP on their stop signs. Counties that don't use the same alphabet as us obviously use their own words or symbols. Much of south and central America use PARE or ALTO. And there are other countries that share our alphabet but their stop signs were in their own language. Israel has a neat solution, they have a raised hand thus avoiding any linguistic issues.
And of course in the UK stop signs are relatively rare, with the Give Way sign being much more common.
I would say that the wind blew from the face side of the sign, causing the ice to form on that side. The sun then shone from the opposite side, warming the sign and causing the ice to detach without melting to any depth.
Had the sun shone on the face of the sign the ice would probably have melted through from the front.
The stop signs on the aboriginal reservation in my area are in mi'kmaq. People keep asking, how it happened. I would say there was freezing rain that froze to the sign, it got warmer and it was probably windy. Typical winter day in Canada.
quebec is the only place in the world where stop sighns don't say stop. some other french speaking parts of canada (some parts of manitoba and northern ontario) I have seen a few places where they say stop and then arret very small at the bottom.
The English are more forgiving of people who use English idioms incorrectly. Often, the French will tear you a new one if you get it wrong, or simply ignore you.
Again, they're nbot all like that. There's just a higher proportion of nitpickers.
In 1998, with the commonly known episode of "la tempête de verglas", absolutely *everything* outside was like this stop sign.
Huh... Maybe because that's the language we speak? What do you think?
Where did you get this from? Many countries around the world do not use STOP on their stop signs. Counties that don't use the same alphabet as us obviously use their own words or symbols. Much of south and central America use PARE or ALTO. And there are other countries that share our alphabet but their stop signs were in their own language. Israel has a neat solution, they have a raised hand thus avoiding any linguistic issues.
And of course in the UK stop signs are relatively rare, with the Give Way sign being much more common.
Had the sun shone on the face of the sign the ice would probably have melted through from the front.
People keep asking, how it happened. I would say there was freezing rain that froze to the sign, it got warmer and it was probably windy. Typical winter day in Canada.
And Voilà!, the google street view:
http://g.co/maps/rt9ba
ps: who cares where this is from
quebecois are obssessed with the french language.