Offensive Misreadings

I went to lunch on Wabash near Madison today, which for those who aren't in the know is where all the diamond emporia, jewelers, etc., are. There's currently a shitload of construction going on and Wabash abounds with places where the sidewalk is temporarily redirected, closed off, etc. There's also an abundance of those sawhorse-style construction barrier/signs. I noticed one of them in particular right outside a diamond dealer's; I assume they were all marked in this fashion, but this one caught my eye; it was stenciled with the letters J E M in big black letters, but that's not what I read; I inverted the final letter and for half a second thought the sign read "JEW". "Wow," I thought, "that's pretty blatant. I'm surprised they haven't taken it down - oh."

In other news: the chicken shawarma in a weird little "Mediterranean" style deli in the back of one of those jewelers is pretty good, and I'm not a big fan of that sort of cuisine, all paprika and hummous. Of course, it might be that I've always objected to the label, since as best as I can tell "Mediterranean" as a cuisine style means something like "Lebanese but sometimes we have spanakopita".