Sometimes stupidity works. Take the exit sign on the old Mitchell Street Car Wash in Norwich; it was one of the most effective signs in the history of signage and it wasn’t even spelled correctly.

If you don’t remember the car wash – located where the empty of the two Rite Aids sits now – it was a tuck’s pad short of being a logistical hemorrhoid. The building ran parallel lengthwise to Mitchell Street and was blocked in on three sides. There was only one entrance. To enter, you had to needle your car through a narrow opening at the far end of the building and drive around back. That way when you pulled into one of the three wash bays you would be facing Mitchell Street. It was a complicated set-up for a car wash, but it was the easiest way to get in and out.

To prevent people from driving into an open bay and jamming up what was a sensitive traffic operation, a car wash associate put up a sign out front. It read “EIXT” in big red letters. That’s right, E-I-X-T. Sweet phonics. What’s even better is they didn’t correct it for years. And it’s not like nobody noticed.