Someone Hacked a Los Angeles Traffic Sign to Display the Best Message Ever

A downtown Los Angeles traffic sign is urging people to go home and get their literacy on

By Jenna Mullins Jan 09, 2015 11:44 PMTags
Los Angeles TrafficKevork Djansezian/Getty Images

As people who have sat in Los Angeles traffic and thus lost all will to live, we can definitively say that this is one of the best things to come out of those bumper to bumper roads since the carpool lane.

A mischievous individual recently hacked into an electronic traffic sign in downtown Los Angeles to display a very important message. And it's a message that personally we hope anyone who passed it immediately adhered to.

What was the flashing message that someone needed people to see so badly that they overrode the system behind a simple LA traffic sign? LA Weekly's Daina Beth Solomon was one of the first to stumble across it and snap a photo:

"Read a f--king book"

Now, here is our question. We assume that whoever is behind this is just strongly urging people to stop looking at their cell phones or snap chats or tweets or whatever else the kids do these days and pick up a book instead. But could they also be asking people to read a "f--king book," as in a book about fornication?

Perhaps this was the work of some frustrated girlfriend or wife who is in desperate need of some good loving and this message is their way of very publicly asking their spouse to do some research. Maybe they haven't had an orgasm in years. Isn't this a sad, far-fetched tale? Yeah, it's probably the simpler explanation that someone just really wants people to read more, but we like to think some housewife named Helen is trying to reach her husband of 17 years, Gary.

Damn it, Gary! Read a --king book so you can adequately pleasure your wife, Helen!

Whoever is behind this: we applaud you. Reading is one of life's most wonderful activities, and not enough people do it. So listen to the sign, everyone, and go get your literacy on.