Signs often amuse me. This one was on the outside of a hospital that I was going by today. Funny, right?
I ask you - why the necessity for this sign? What is the story behind this stranglehold-on-the-obvious instruction?
Imagine - fire breaks out in the OR. "Code red" comes over the speaker system. Doctors, nurses, orderlies, rushing everywhere in a controlled manner; no one is panicking, but patients are being wheeled out of the building from every exit. Sirens are wailing as fire trucks come screeching up to the front of the building. Smoke is pouring out of a window somewhere.
And in the middle of this scenario, a delivery truck pulls up. The driver hops out, opens the back, pulls out a dolly and loads it up with two or three cases of ... say ... hospital gowns. Or cotton swabs. He deftly wheels the dolly around the patient beds lining the sidewalk, and heads toward the delivery ramp, turning up his iPod as he goes, so he can hear the music over the alarms and sirens.
His only hesitation comes as he reaches the door, and looks around for someone to sign for the delivery. But no one pays any attention to him at all, and he becomes quite irritable as he considers the arrogance of these know-it-all doctors who think it is beneath them to talk to a delivery driver. He doesn't have time for this - there are other deliveries waiting to be made (not to mention that he's parked in a fire zone). Grabbing someone firmly by the sleeve, he brandishes his clipboard and demands that he be acknowledged, that his delivery be received.....
Thank goodness they can point to a sign on the wall!
