Having a lovely time at Leicester comedy festival. Last night I saw Tom Burgess's Peter Fleming’s Dismally Ill-Prepared TV Pub Quiz and had a delightful time. It was so, so funny.

You can read a full account of this story on my Patreon OR come see me talk about it live at the Leicester comedy festival on Sunday!

Taking a brief interlude in the history of road sign fonts thread to show off this cool new book my lovely wife bought me*. *I'm trying not to buy any books this year and she was worried it would be difficult to get ahold of next year.

Road signs in the UK use a font specifically created for that purpose, called Transport. (Many countries signed up to the Vienna Convention use variations of this font.) How Transport came to be the font of choice is a fascinating story as many elements of it were highly controversial...

The blue of a parking sign (in the UK) is pantone 300. Here are more facts about the colour blue than you thought you needed: www.patreon.com/posts/141127...

The parking sign dates back to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics! I'll be releasing a full patreon post all about it next week. In the mean time, there's a paid post about motorcycle helmets already up.

I've been doing some reading about parking signs recently and it turns out the history is super interesting. Can you guess when the P in a blue rectangle parking sign was invented and for what event?

Little parking signs for bikes are always adorable.

You've gotta check they're legit though - there's an underground market in stolen street signs...

You can also just buy them. Some of them for like £30.

They just leave road signs lying around on the floor, no guards or nothing. Anyone could just pick one up and take it home...

You can read the full report on the Slough Safety Experiment here: ia801400.us.archive.org/20/items/op1... And see a bunch of cool photos of the original signs and posters etc.

This is supposed to be a hand btw but I am not good at hands. Tbf, the original posters, made in the early 50s, have something authoritarian about their nature (I presume bc they're built directly on war propaganda iconography) and so it's probably for the best I didn't accurately capture the image.

The Great Slough Experiment! Read all about how Slough was turned into a safety town on my patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/148849...

Signs from the Margaret Calvert Exhibition at the OSH Gallery last year.

Another excellent road sign from Italy.

Welcome to Italy! If you want to know what specific brand of car it is you can read the deep dive on my patreon! (Spoilers: I don't know very much about cars.)

The Vienna Convention on road signs lays out basic shapes, colours and concepts for consistency across countries but allows for a lot of individuality within that. Can you guess what country this road sign is from based on its unique car symbol?

The Vienna Convention on road signs lays out basic shapes, colours and concepts for consistency across countries but allows for a lot of individuality within that. Can you guess what country this road sign is from based on its unique car symbol?

Look at this beast.

You too can be an annoying-I-mean-knowledgeable passenger by reading my patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/146350...

I now know the difference between speed bumps (designed to reduce speed to about 5mph), humps (designed to reduce to 20mph ish), cushions (don't cover the full length of the road) and tables (raised out of the road for pedestrians to cross) which makes me a super fun passenger.

Did you know that red paint on signs often fades faster than blue? It's therefore not uncommon to see No Through Road signs sans the red bar. This has led to a rumour that some No Through Road signs signal if there is space to turn (a white T) and those that don't (with a red bar) which is not true!

Was late to an event today taking a photo of this nice tiled street sign.

You can find out all about this sign in my brief history of the Give Way sign here on my patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/147796...

Would anyone like to guess what this no longer in use road sign signals?

Did you know that the modern day speed bump was invented* by a Nobel prize winning physicist. *in so far as anyone can invent such a thing as a speed bump.

In the 60s, road signs in the UK had a glowup. They moved from mostly text based designs (like the sign on the right) to mostly icons. The redesign was commissioned by the Worboys Committee, led by Sir Walter Worboys, and so these signs are often referred to as pre and post Worboys signs.

Did you know that the cow on the warning sign for cattle is based on a real cow called Patience?

London was divided into postal districts in 1857, using the points on a compass. In 1917, the districts were subdivided with numbers. Signs like this one can be dated to between 1857 (because they have the NW) and 1917 (because the 6 looks a little different we might guess it was added later).

An artist's* rendition of an original bump in the road sign, one of four signs proposed at the 1908 World Road Congress in Paris which was the first attempt to standardise road signs across the world. *It's me, I am the artist.

So I did actually get trapped in a magical stew until 2026. Beware the curses, predictions and tricks of @zoepaskett.bsky.social I have emerged, covered in gravy.

Look deep into the swirling cauldron @hashtagcerys.bsky.social. Look deeper. Closer than that! Closer... Ahahaha you have fallen into my magical pot of stew! I tricked you! You will remain here until 2026, please make yourself comfortable, help yourself to stew, let me know if you need anything xx

My wife has just proudly told me she made her own "brandy cream". She microwaved a mince pie, put cream on it and then poured on a whole glass of brandy. You are welcome.

Waking up on boxing day, not hungry exactly more hollow?

having watched approx 8 christmas movies in a row today, i'm starting to worry about these writers' relationships with their dads.

Solidarity with everyone cooking Christmas dinner in their mum's stupid fancy oven that has too many bells and whistles and won't just cook things without doing some ridiculous song and dance first.

every year i resolve to be nice to my mum when we go home for christmas and i get in through the door and immediately regress to my 14 year old self and my wife thinks it's hilarious and amuses herself by pointing out how similar we are and i think i'm going to have to divorce her now.

Two massive revelations this Christmas: Dustin Hoffman plays Hook in Hook. Hook is directed by Steven Spielberg. This has changed my life.

Just got back to the village I grew up in and immediately saw a guy I went to primary school with rocking an "I shave my head out of choice not because I have a receding hairline, honest!" haircut. #ThereAreManyWaysToFeelOldAtChristmas

Currently on antibiotics that I need to take 4 times a day on an empty stomach. The catch? I'm heading back to my mum's for Christmas. My stomach isn't going to be empty until at least the 27th.

Surprisingly gender affirming card from my nan this year.

Don't shake me like a polaroid picture. Place me face down in a dark pocket and wait for me to develop (like a polaroid picture).

maybe today will be the day I eat the orange I put in my bag on Monday

it is a good start! very glad to see Wales is here to play.

when the noises that other people are making are stressing me out, I try to remind myself that they are just existing and I can't get cross at them for that BUT I do think sucking your fingers in public is universally gross and should be banned.