During my trip to Memphis I had a little bit of time to walk around the city. I mostly got to the Beale Street area, but I also made a foray to the famous Peabody Hotel nearby. The Peabody Hotel has a distinctive feature: ducks in its lobby. Ages and ages ago the proprietors thought it would be funny to have live ducks in their lobby, so now they do. And every day, twice a day, the ducks officially march from wherever they ordinarily live to the fountain, and then back, along a red carpet. I managed to miss the march to the fountain by 15 minutes...
But by the time I did show up they were splashing around the marble pond. The pond was separated from the carpeted floor by an area of marble tile adorned by two temporary brass signs. I was talking to my dad on the phone, describing the scene to him, and decided to go see what the signs said. Turns out they were "slippery when wet" signs, albeit a bit more ornate than the typical plastic "piso mojado" signs you normally see. The brass was etched with the familiar warning, along with an engraving illustrating a duck slipping on a puddle.
Which turned out to be somewhat ironic when I noticed a duck slip and fall off the marble ledge of the pond. I mentioned this to my dad. "Maybe that's why they made the signs the way they did, to warn the ducks to be careful. Perhaps there had been a lawsuit," he offered.
"Right," I concurred. "It was about whether the reasonable duck would have been put on sufficient notice of the risk."
There was a pause.
"Wait, did I just say, 'the reasonable duck'? *sigh* I think law school has damaged me..."