Thursday, August 12, 2010

Pike Place Market Secret Message






A couple of weeks ago when I was at the Pike Place Market I noticed for the very first time what looked suspiciously like a Morse code message worked into the tiles on the wall in the women's bathroom.  I think I actually said "Ha!" out loud when it suddenly popped out at me.  I scribbled the patterns of dots and dashes down on a scrap of paper, in the process receiving some funny looks from other women in the bathroom, and looked it up later.  Yep, much to my delight, I discovered that the bathroom wall message says....

"meet"

"the"

"pro-"


"-duc-"



"-cer"


(In case you are wondering, taking photos of the walls in the busy bathroom did feel really awkward...)


The Morse code message is a play on this sign on the outside of the Market building - 


Perhaps you might call that phrase the "motto" of the Pike Place Market.  I'm not sure when that bathroom was remodeled with the new wall tiles, but I'm sure that it has been it a while.  Funny it never caught my eye before.  Nick verified for me yesterday that the same message is on the wall of the men's room.


I shouldn't have been surprised by the secret code message.  Here is the tile floor at the entry to the women's bathroom -



THAT has been there forever. Actually, the tiled floor of that very bathroom at the Market is what inspired my choice of tile for the bathroom floor in my studio several years ago.  Voila!  -