The Black Hand Gang

For one slightly worried moment, I wondered if the infamous Black Hand Gang was making a resurgence in the east end of Glasgow.

Wobbling home after a trip to the shops, I spotted a line of odd signs tied on to some temporary fencing around some works that had sprung up on some of the houses during the past week.

At first I thought some frustrated artist had decided it was an easy way to show of their works – apparently some sort of psychedelic tie-dyeing variation, as shown below.

On first sight, it was a black hand on rainbow background, neatly presented in a clear plastic laminated cover to protect it from the weather, and tied to the fence with the ubiquitous cable-tie. Like  most places, we are plagued with cheap and nasty adverts tied to just about anything that a cable-tie will reach around, and I was even trying to work out what this might be an ad for.

It’s worth pointing out that the camera sensor ruins the effect to some degree, as the wording that can be seen behind the colours was not evident to the naked eye (and it was a dull, grey, wet, evening too.

I walked along the fence, noting that apart from the black hand, all these signs had completely different coloured patterns on them.

Of course, it turned out to be something that was little more than a classic example of Sod’s Law, and had I happened to have walked along this fence beginning from the other end, then there would have been no mystery, as the very last sign provided the very mundane answer.

Unlike the others, it had been laminated properly, and the edges heat sealed.

All the others had been made without being sealed properly, so the rain had penetrated them, seeped in the paper, and filtered out the various component colours of the non-waterproof ink that the signs had been printed with.

Still, at least it made me smile, and  not just feel as if I had been made a mug of.

And another interesting photo-opportunity after months of drought – maybe things are getting better.