Pornography and Stupidity

Walking East on 23rd Street on the way home from the gym the other night, I passed by a place that I had up to this point never noticed. This happens quite often in New York, because it is impossible to notice absolutely everything when there is always so much going on and so much to look at. What I saw, however, stopped me dead in my tracks.

I stood outside of the adult video store, peering through the glass at what I thought must be a joke. A brightly-lit neon sign hung in the window, beckoning people to come inside to preview their vast selection of pornography. That a place like this exists didn't surprise me, as does little these days now that I live in New York. What struck me, however, was that a neon sign like this actually got manufactured in the first place. Take a look.


Now, I'm not traditionally a huge fan of assuming a causal relationship between things that could be completely unrelated, however, this time I can't resist. Are there not people who make sure that words are spelled correctly before signs are made? This is precisely the kind of thing that confirms my cynicism and chips away at any positive inkling I might have had about the general intelligence of the masses. I understand that typos occur, but this is not a typo. I would be remiss, in this case, not to state the obvious. I think this might be an example of how pornography is directly contributing to the dumbing-down of the American public.