What are these strange symbols?

October 9, 2005 1:14 PM

What are these symbols spraypainted on the sidewalk near Boston, MA? My photo might be upside-down or sidways.

At first I thought the markings (which appeared some time in the last few weeks) might be an example of traditional hobo signs or some kind of warchalking but I can't find any of these symbols in online guides.

posted by rxrfrx to grab bag (17 comments total)

I should add, if it matters, that this may just be regular paint, not spraypaint.
posted by rxrfrx at 1:28 PM on October 9, 2005

They look like the lettering in some exploding dog pictures (see here), but I don't know what they mean. It might point you in the right direction, though.
posted by ohio at 1:30 PM on October 9, 2005

My first thought was The Standard Galactic Alphabet, but it ain't.
posted by Hildago at 2:27 PM on October 9, 2005

I often see things like this spray-painted on the street, and I think they have to do with either traffic signs to be placed, electrical buried lines, buried sewer lines, or buried gas lines.

I could be wrong, though.
posted by Wild_Eep at 3:21 PM on October 9, 2005

Where did you see them? IIRC, there were similar symbols on the Mass Ave bridge, and they wound up being associated with an upcoming movie. (Unfortunately, I can't remember which one...)
posted by dbelson at 4:27 PM on October 9, 2005

dbelson: they were in Brookline, just over the line from Allston. That would be dumb, if they're marking up people's neighborhoods with stupid promotional junk like that.
posted by rxrfrx at 4:47 PM on October 9, 2005

It's Hebrew... I don't know what it says. But Brookline has a large Orthodox community.
posted by kdern at 5:44 PM on October 9, 2005

Are you sure, kdern? The symbols on the right-hand side of the picture don't look anything like any of the Hebrew letters to me. Do you know Hebrew, or are you just guessing?
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:33 PM on October 9, 2005

Four of them could be Hebrew, but not the two on the right, so I'd say Hebrew is out.
posted by callmejay at 6:46 PM on October 9, 2005

Hebrew is my first language and this is definitely not Hebrew.
posted by ori at 7:04 PM on October 9, 2005

When I first saw it, I thought Hebrew, as I noticed the two symbols that look like a backwards bet and a taf, but the rest aren't Hebrew, as as has already been pointed out. The straight line with the small perpendicular extension looks sorta like a Hebrew vowel, too. I still wonder whether these markings are somehow related to the Hebrew tags I occasionally see around Allston/Brighton.
posted by rxrfrx at 8:15 PM on October 9, 2005

I think I'm getting something here ... all ... your ... base ... Wait, no.

It doesn't look professional enough to be some kind of viral -- though that's been done before, it's usually drawn the displeasure of local authorities. My guess isn't Hebrew but perhaps one of the Asian pictographic languages, such as Korean?
posted by dhartung at 10:11 PM on October 9, 2005

For what it's worth, it's not Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
posted by edjusted at 11:08 PM on October 9, 2005

I often see things like this spray-painted on the street, and I think they have to do with either traffic signs to be placed, electrical buried lines, buried sewer lines, or buried gas lines.

I see those, too; they mark various color-coded utility lines around planned digging. I've seen some fairly strange and abstract-looking utility markings, but none that look like rxrfrx's image. Maybe it's a local, specialized version.

Is it just this one group of them, rxrfrx? Or are there more?
posted by mediareport at 11:54 PM on October 9, 2005

mediareport: I haven't seen any others... but it's been a few weeks since I've walked around that neighborhood, so I might have missed others. I'll check next time I'm there.
posted by rxrfrx at 4:46 AM on October 10, 2005

This has me curious. It's like it's on the verge of being a recognizable alphabet, just not quite there. (First thought was Korean, but it's not..) I live in Allston & was just in Brookline yesterday looking for some place (any place!) with the first season of Lost... I'll watch the sidewalk next time I'm out & about.
posted by Marit at 7:33 AM on October 10, 2005

For comparison, some relatively abstract utility street markings. I think yours is an art thing, rxrfrx.
posted by mediareport at 5:58 PM on October 10, 2005