Joannas Diary: a TGirl Blog : Warning, May Contain Nuts

Now Connie and Clarissa can vouch for this, on the main Southend Arterial road, as you come into the town is an traffic sign that consists of an exclamation sign in a warning triangle with a second sign saying "Badgers" underneath it. I've never been quite sure what hazard the badgers are, maybe they sneak up and steal your wheels. But I'm being ware.

The sign has become a bit of a long running joke whenever we drive into Southend. We're always being on alert for badger attacks and suchlike. I kept meaning to take a photo of it, but its rather dangerous while driving I suppose ;)

Anyway, the signs have been in the news this week in a story worhty of appearing in all three of our local newspapers. Apparently they have been a target for sign thieves. Over the last few months the Badger bit of the sign has been stolen several times, but they leave the exclamation mark.

The local badger watch has been left dumbfounded as to the motive behind the thefts. I'm wondering, Southend has a large Traveller population.. maybe someone is taking them to stop them being offended when driving into town......?

6 Comments:

At August 25, 2007 12:35 PM, Selina said…

Nah. It's Ruth Badger doing it (from The Apprentice).
At August 26, 2007 2:26 AM, Parker said…

Or maybe the A127 gets a lot of visitors from the US state of Wisconsin (http://www.uwbadgers.com/). Knowing several graduates of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, I've been told that at ice hockey games between the two schools, the Wisconsin supporters have traditionally thrown a dead gopher onto the ice (as the U of M's mascot is a gopher) and Minnesota supporters have returned the favour with a dead badger. Apparently badgers are harder to catch than gophers, so Minnesota fans have more work to do to keep up their end of the tradition.

I know all of this is a bit gruesome, but I think it goes to show that if Wisconsin ice hockey fans are crazy enough to kill gophers as props for sporting events, they wouldn't be above flying across the Atlantic to loot the Badgers signs from UK highways.
At August 26, 2007 3:57 PM, Chrissy J. said…

This post has been removed by the author.
At August 26, 2007 4:00 PM, Chrissy J. said…

Dangerous creatures, badgers...

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/trailer/

(I knew that remembering this would come in handy!)
At August 26, 2007 8:11 PM, Lucinda said…

Badger is an old Essex name for a protected species of transvestite - like the one pictured but thought to be a touch pejorative hence some people take down the sign.
At September 10, 2007 9:00 PM, Joanna said…

The sign was stolen again last week...

There's a new one now, which just says "Wild Animals" which just isn't as funny....