Lacquered on the door to Gate B in the Portland, Maine airport is the bright red declaration at right:

(The NONE is written in by hand, designating the doer of the subsequent deeds.)

This is an intensely awkward byproduct of signage. Is it a sign for sign’s sake? Is it an item on a standard airport checklist that, while irrelevant here, needs to be present for the sake of uniformity? Is it a typographical error? Is NONE an acronym for an airport agency? Is the sign a prank? Is it a logical deduction that since “NONE does not” therefore everyone does maintain and administer effective security measures? Is the use of the double negative one of those measures? And if so, how extensive is this security anyway that we all maintain and administer it effectively?

Of course, the sign’s most probable raison d’être is that of the aforementioned checkpoint—a necessary indication of security that supports a notion of general safety. (A reassurance for those who worry that the 9/11 hijackers began their day in this airport.) Fine for Portland, then, but where is this boilerplate in other airports? More pointedly, what kind of signal is sent by a generic fill-in-the-blank sign exposing the culprit who is not doing their job of aviation security?