"No Laying" Allowed

It's hard to imagine how an English teacher could get any reading done on the PATCO line, what with signs like this taunting her.

Mrs. Etheljean Deal, a member of the language arts department at Gateway Regional High School in New Jersey, had had enough.

She'd crossed the river the other evening and in the corridor of the 13th and Locust station she encountered a list of activities forbidden by transit authorities:

"No laying, sitting, sleeping on the floor."

For those of you who are a little rusty on usage, the sign commands, among other things, that customers not have sex, which, as you can understand, might distract the drivers.

She writes:

My take? It's horrible it's come to this, that authorities feel the need to ban what should be confined to the privacy of one's home or automobile. Actually, my take is this: It has little to do with the quality of education in Philadelphia. The fine print shows the sign was made in New Jersey.