What Do The Words On This Sign Mean To You?

Have I ever told you that you have the most amazing mind, Sue??

It is so interesting that you caught the implications of what that sign was really saying. That it is trying to impose and enforce morally as well as attempting to deter criminal activity. For it to say that such activity is not merely "against the law," but to go further and make the inferrence that it is morally "wrong."

Excellent observation, my dear........:>)

Well, you're definitely on the track of my thoughts, berf, and may I add that I would have preferred that the most intelligent refrain from comment for maybe 20 or so comments, but I saw it even a little bit differently. I like what you saw though.

Well, perhaps I did not go far enough with my comment above.
What I see in the sign's message is an attempt to use not-so-subliminal psychology to not-so-subconsciously implant the message in people's minds that, not only is buying cigarettes for minors "wrong," but smoking cigarettes itself is "wrong."
However, after this thread has run on for a while, I will be very interested to read your personal take on this.........

I'll be back, Berf. I now realize that I must edit this post. I left an "l" out up there.

Now that's a bit deeper than I'd like to go at this moment. I didn't get that part, but it's a possibility, I suppose. No, to me, it had nothing to do with the cigarettes at all. You were more on track with my thinking with your first comment. I doubt this thread will wear out any cursors from scrolling up too much, Berf.

I think the sign is wrong. Legally it makes no sense- it is the store owner who would be prosecuted for selling to minors.

Wow, I guess I never really though about signs of that nature. I see them all the time for ciggarettes and alcohol. Perhaps the sign is just a government warning that if you buy minor's ciggarettes, take precautions so as not to get caught.

It's seems rather unlikely to me that someone would actually end up being prosecuted, yet the sign speaks of that possibility as if a fact.

I see this nonsensical promotion of potential to factual, all over this place, and few even bat an eye. It's become "normal", it seems.

Helen, yes, they are certainly responsible if they sell to minors, but it's intriguing to me that you saw it that way because it means that you think that only the owners are responsible. So, let's personalize this a bit. What if you had a young 13 year old daughter, and she asked a friend of hers, an adult who was of age, by that I mean she asked someone old enough to walk into the store, ask the clerk for cigarettes, and give the clerk the money to buy the cigarettes, and the person did this for your daughter. Then the person walked out of the store, gave the change (if there was any, to your daughter) and also gave the cigarettes to your daughter. Would you want that person to be held accountable, or prosecuted, as you put it? Remember, the clerk or owner of the store who sold the cigarettes had no knowledge that the cigarettes were going to be given to your daughter. Do you not think that the person who bought them for her should be prosecuted?

So, John, what does the sign mean to you?

Just don't do it!

Well, it seems the one that made the sign believes I, the reader of the sign, will be prosecuted. There's no "if" clause . . .

You buy cigarettes for minors, John? I find that difficult to believe.

Me too . . .

There ya go, Alta. That's, at least, the right message to get on a purely substantive basis.

Hey, jose! Good to have your input, as always!

I will, Jose, but I'm having fun now and this is more serious.

Well, Jose, it's all in how you look at it. Certainly, the unpleasantness was apparent, but one person actually seemed to have gotten something out of the article that I wrote that I never would have thought to have written in such a way had it not been for that unpleasantness and what transpired from it. Everything to me is not ever separate situtations. All things work together for good if you are working toward good.

Okay, it's getting late and this is the way I see it, though it's just a sign and, as much as I hate that expression, it is what it is. Buying cigarettes for minors is not only wrong, it's against the law. You will be prosecuted. This is what struck me.

If I were the writer of that sign, I would have written, Buying cigarettes for minors is not only against the law, it is wrong. You will be prosecuted. What is right or wrong is what the law should be based upon. It is not that the law determines what is right or what is wrong for that has already been determined and the law is only supposed to enforce the prinicples of what is right.

For it to say that such activity is not merely "against the law," but to go further and make the inferrence that it is morally 'wrong" Well, hell's bells! I just read Berf's comment again and I do believe she said what I said in a different way!

She's a flippin' genius!

This is kind of interesting, Berf, only in the psychoanalysis of myself, though. When I read your comment, I told you it was on track, but I also knew that I would have expressed it the way I did rather than the way you did even if we thought the same, so instead of saying that you were right on target with what I thought, I said you were on the right track because I probably didn't want the thread to end right then and there, at the first comment. Now, at the time, I didn't cognitively realize that's what I thought, but now that I went back to read it, I can see that I may have deliberately, subconsciously not have cared to recognize that you could have possibly been as astute as I, as well as not wanting the thread to end. I mean, who in this whole wide world is as astute as I, anywaY? I guess, just you.

Well, Sue seeks the narrow gate . . .  ; )

This is all like creating your own Twilight Zone. Maybe you can fit in the narrow gate with Berf and me, but I'm skinny, so you and Berf had better diet.

Spicecomments.com - Good Night Comments

This brings me to the good night kiss. My partner and I have a sort of love/hate relationship. He was eating a yogurt today, as I went to grab a couple of chocloate chip cookies one of the secretaries had made. He said, "This is the new me,"as he proudly pointed out his little commercial yogurt cup. I said, "I don't mean to burst your bubble, but have you read the contents of that yogurt? If it has high fructose corn syrup in the first few ingredients listed, you may as well be eating my cookies." He very crestfallenly turned the cup to see the fateful words listed at the top of the ingredients. "Oh, and I bought a whole case of these last week-end," he replied woefully. "Oh, well," I said, as I bit off a piece of cookie and sauntered away.

Thank you, necee. Just what the shrink ordered! You're a doll!

I was quite serious , Sue. Not talkin' about the sign, but what you did when you examined your own motivations. That's not the Twilight-Zone. That's the key that opens the gate. Listening for that small still voice.

John, I know you were serious, and I was blushingly embarrassed by that high compliment from you, so instead of graciously thanking you, I turned it into a joke. If you could have seen me when I read that, you would have known that. Thank you. :)