I spent the afternoon at Butterfly World in Coconut Beach, Florida, and while the butterflies, hummingbirds and flowers were delightful (my daughter adored the whole experience), it was the signage that I found most entertaining.
It started with this, a welcome sign that might have overstated the attraction just a bit.
A paradise? A world where dreams come true?
Based upon this sign, my next book deal will be a multi-million dollar, five book extravaganza. Happy day! Dreams coming true, all thanks to butterfly World.
And as for the “so much more,” the sign actually listed everything except the gift shop and restrooms, which hardly constitute “so much more.”
From here, the signage took a dramatically different turn:
Turns out that Butterfly World is more like a prison than a paradise. Huh?
Of course, there were utterly bizarre signs as well:
Elysha’s grandmother did not find my constant closing of these doors on her face to be very amusing, despite by obvious adherence to the sign.
And then there was this interesting and IMPORTANT WARNING:
Did you see that? If you have an obvious mole, the birds will think it is a seed and try to eat it. Yikes!
Of course, this sign is on the INSIDE of the bird cage and can only be read when you are already surrounded by twenty or more birds who are more than happy to hop on your hand, shoulder or foot without prompting.
Signage is like buying a home: Location is everything.
And to make the signage experience complete, there was also the obligatory grammatically challenged sign as well:
So much wrong here. As my wife pointed out, the use of quotation marks around the word PLEASE almost make the request sound facetious. “They’re almost asking us to pick the flowers,” she said.
Add to this the use of two opening quotation marks and the lack of a period on the final sentence and you can’t help but wonder what kind of intellect was required to design such a thing.
But I must admit that the bizarre nature of the signage, some of which I didn’t bother to post here, added a layer of entertainment unattainable by the presence of mere butterflies and hummingbirds.
Butterfly World. Fun on many levels.
