

Just to take a quick break from today's avalanche of atrocious press about Trump, and the candidate's continued, baffling idiocy and grossness, here's a look at how the famed sign outside Kahn & Keville tire shop at the corner of Turk and Larkin has been addressing this year's election, and specifically Donald Trump.

Owner and quote curator Bill Brinnon, who's been putting funny quips and literary quotes on the marquee since 1969, told the Bold Italic a few years ago that the tradition is something that started with the shop's original co-owner, Hugh J. Keville, back in the 1920's. Keville had volunteered for World War I, and while in the service he had kept a notebook of inspirational sayings and quotes to buoy his spirits. He began posting quotes on a big chalkboard in the tire shop, and after the marquee went up in 1958, he started posting them there.

Brinnon says back in the day, despite those beginnings, the quotes often were just jokes about women drivers and the like, but he's always tried to keep it classier. “The purpose of the sign is to encourage discussion," he says, adding that he likes quotes that "have a little twist at the end. Some irony. A joke."

There's been no shortage of discussion to spark during this horrific election year, and as you can see below, Brinnon has mixed in some topical stuff as a result, including the latest Voltaire one, above, with its ominous and obvious allusion to Trump. See even more here on Instagram. The sign changes every three to six weeks or so.



