The goal of our infamous sign on Alameda is to give a chuckle to the afternoon commuters. Sometimes, there’s a “rest of the story”. We have gotten quite a bit of "buzz" about our current edition, and if some find it offensive, we sincerely apologize.

“Old sayings” are usually assumed anonymous, but with a little research, their origins can often be found. Our current roadside literary offering is the work of a great American woman.

Poet, writer, and critic Dorothy Rothschild Parker was born in New York on August 22, 1893. She was a master of wit and wisecracks. Her works were published in such magazines as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue; she was a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table; her screenwriting efforts earned her two Academy Award nominations, and some of her works have been set to music, most notably the operatic song cycle ‘Hate Songs’ by composer Marcus Paus.

We couldn't find anecdotes of her interest in gardening, but she was once asked to make up a sentence using the word “horticulture”. 

Yes, THAT sentence.

She never met Martin Luther King Jr; she died less than one year before Martin's assassination and left no heirs. But because of the profound admiration she held for Martin Luther King Jr she bequeathed her estate to him, she also stated that if he was murdered - and he was - her estate would be passed to the NAACP.

You may recognize some of her other quips and verses:

“I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”

“Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.”

“You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.”

“The cure to boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”

“Now I know the things I know, and I do the things I do;
and if you do not like me so, to hell, my love, with you!”

Learn more about Dorothy Parker:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/24956.Dorothy_Parker?page=1