HowLee
Photographer: Mark Stroup
Date: November 19, 2004
Place: Forbes and Shady, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh
Why this sign?
The two "e's" are burnt out on the How Lee restaurant. The remaining
letters accidentally spell "Howl," giving it a kind of bluesy feel --
Howlin' Wolf's favorite restaurant, perhaps. There should be a word for
that, where the mistakes of a sign give some kind of extra meaning,
sort of like "HOT'L Baltimore." Calling all language mavens,
deconstructions, art historians, etc. for assistance.
Latitude: 40.4379
Longitude: -79.9197
Posted by at June 14, 2005 3:24 PM
Comments
Two comments:
1. The restaurant used to be called Ho Lee Chow.
They changed the name to How Lee, thus saving having
to buy any new letters.
2. Another example of signs with missing letters that spell something else: A clothes-washing facility in McKeesport, the sign made it "Undromat" which I thought was appropriate if you're washing undies.
Posted by: Eric Riebling at September 30, 2005 10:06 PM