A roadway sign advertising something. I saw it driving back from the airport this morning, and what with the rising sun half blinding me, I didn’t catch the name of the user of this slogan. Driving on, however, the words reverberated. It occurred that this must be some kind of recreation venue, and the four words attempt to capture in a single rhyming slogan the sum and substance of all things worth doing in this day and age. Now in this sequence dine, play, and stay are kind of fundamental. Dine stands for eating—check. Play stands for sex— check. And stay stands for having to sleep somewhere. Check again. What stood out for me was the third item in line. Shop. In our times shopping has been promoted to a kind of free-standing and inherently justified form of something worthwhile to do. Shop. Till you drop. After you drop, someone near and dear to you can…shop. For a suitable funeral service complete with an appropriate coffin and a concrete vault set in a tiny piece of real estate.
This one is a step up from a highway sign I saw many years ago traveling through Missouri. That one invited drivers to "Squat and Gobble", no kidding. The first time I saw it I almost drove off the shoulder, I laughed so hard. But that was still an era when shopping was not yet essential to keep our economy afloat.
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