Spotted above the office “water cooler” by “Josh” in Boston…

related: and all the pieces matter

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D in Sunderland, Mass. received a piece of her previous manager’s mail several months after he was fired. “I felt it was only right to contact him about a membership directory for an organization with which he was heavily involved,” she says. “I was genuinely shocked to receive his reply, especially considering how careful he [...]

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“I’m a server at a chain restaurant,” writes our anonymous submitter, “and we have a bulletin board in the back where people can trade shifts. Lately, people have been including (along with their phone number and shift information) sad stories about why you should choose their shift to pick up (instead of all the other [...]

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this is why the “seething and waiting” strategy will never get through to a messy roommate. (they are oblivious to your blind rage!)
to wit: laura lives in a four-person suite at boston college, where she says one of her suitemates, christin, is “a notorious neat freak.” what that meant was that christin and her roommate, [...]

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after 55 years, the north shore music theatre in beverly, mass. is closing its doors, terrance writes, “and i wanted to preserve the rich history of notes and art that have accumulated over the years.” first up: this artistic series from the intern lounge. (sidenote: intern lounge?!)

related: i’ll tell you what’s classy, though

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spotted at a local restaurant by kevin in boston…

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the most passive-aggressive thing about this note? well, our submitter admits: “i do play soundtracks just to annoy him. maybe next time he shouldn’t dance with other people’s significant others at the office holiday party.”

related: it was an ironic dance party, okay?

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technically, mike in boston only has two roommates, but roomie #2’s ever-present girlfriend has become the apartment’s de facto fourth resident…the non-rent-or-utilities-paying kind.
explains mike: “we only have one thermostat for the whole apartment, but our rooms are so tiny that we can typically keep the heat off and the place stays at 68-70 degrees.” once [...]

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like so many passive-aggressive notewriters, the author of this note — which sarah in brockton, mass. says was posted in the elevator, front hallway, back hallway and the mailroom of her building after a particularly rowdy friday — just can’t seem to fully commit to sarcasm as a rhetorical technique.

(you know, because otherwise people [...]

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Found on the street by Joe in Somerville, Mass…

related: oh, the irony

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sarah in somerville, mass. wasn’t fazed when she left her apartment one saturday to find this otherwise “run-of-the-mill your-mother-doesn’t-live-here note”…until she rounded the corner and was greeted by photocopies of the same note taped to every available surface in the hallway.

then, the next day, another note appeared near the elevator…

…which had apparently been written on [...]

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most drivers could easily identify these duct-tape wrapped shapes as the universal sign for “caution: crazy person ahead,” but our submitter in boston actually pulled over and parked in order to get a better look. up close, “the signs were even crazier than we thought,” she reports. “seriously, what happened to this guy?”

related: movin’ out [...]

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jessica from chicago spotted this gem at a boston-area starbucks.
notes jessica: “i wonder if all that special barista training they had recently included anything about dictating the topic of conversations allowed?”

related: our customers are always right…except when they’re wrong

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Like this phrase, there are a few irritating little pieces of clip art that keep popping up in submissions over and over again. Hovering somewhere near the top of most-wanted list is this pouty little white-gloved dandy.
From the factories of Pittsburgh…

…to the cube-farms of Virginia, this perspiring misanthrope has been spreading his message of intolerance [...]

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amanda in fairhaven, mass. recently took her sister-in-law in for an ultrasound appointment, and she was a little frightened by this sign. (it was posted in three places inside and outside the restroom.)

related: bun — er, pizza in the oven

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charlie in hopkinton, massachusetts (age 17) and his little brother (age 15) spent a good deal of time scheming about how to respond to their mother’s notes around the bathroom before deciding upon shaving cream as their weapon of choice.

p.s. matilda: the most passive-aggressive child in fiction? (also, muggle-wump: the most passive-aggressive monkey?) discuss!
related: [...]

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This fridge saga (from a Boston-area university lab building) comes to us with a confession on the part of the anonymous submitter: she started it, sort of.
It all began when she discovered that her salad dressing had been mysteriously disposed of. Sad that she had to eat dry lettuce for lunch, she left a note [...]

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Emily from Boston summed this one up beautifully, so I’m going to let her take it away. Writes Emily:
1. I’m not making this up.
2. The 389 Highland Ave referred to in the note is a shop called “Your Move Games.” They have a basement where dorky kids congregate and play D&D and WoW and [...]

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laura in boston says one of the restrooms at her school is a real note bonanza. the inside of the stall features no fewer than four individual notes about proper flushing etiquette, and immediately outside the restroom are two (slightly contradictory notes) about proper door opening/closing procedure.

but what’s most interesting? how a couple of those [...]

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Which clip art extravaganza is the most gratuitous? You be the judge!
Is it this sign, from the Virginia office of — of course — a major mobile carrier?

Is it this little tea party of a sign from Cambridge, Mass.?

Or is it this one, from, yes, a church restroom?

related: cubicle etiquette

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Tourist traps have the best signs. More proof? This exercise in subtlety is from Provincetown, Mass., where it was spotted by intrepid vacationer Teresa from Boise.

Exhibit b) is from Washington, D.C., in a store Sam says sold “all sorts of crap, from Nixon and Michael Jackson pins to African drums and sweaters.”

And in Las Vegas, [...]

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laura spotted this punchline of a note (“you know it’s time to move out when…”) at her apartment building in downtown brooklyn. or rather, her former apartment building.

it’s unclear whether the note-leaver was motivated by recent research suggesting that pictures of eyes may deter crime. meanwhile, kim documented a convenience store in worcester, massachusetts taking [...]

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“Apparently I needed to help pay for the growing Internet bill,” says our anonymous submitter from Boston. “This was the only way I was notified: no connection and a wireless LAN reprogrammed with a new password.”

But password-protecting your network is actually a relatively direct (and dare I say, more effective) approach compared to this…

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while jessica was a college student in boston, she lived in a five-person apartment with one friend and three strangers. jess says apartment issues were rarely (if ever– there was only one “meeting”) talked about directly (there was but one “meeting), but were instead handled through a series of “love notes” from anne, like this [...]

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by popular demand, ellen in acton, mass. has sent in a photo of the note that appeared next to the one about spitting in the water fountain on her gym’s suggestion board…

the original “no spitting” note has since been taken down, ellen says. “in its place was one saying that people should stop focusing on [...]

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