Nanny state sign, Evanston IL

From our Chicago area correspondent, a message dated October 17:

As you know it we had beautiful weather last weekend; it was outrageously warm for mid-October, so I decided that it would be a nice time to get down to the lakefront. I visited Evanston, which (of course) is a college town. With the great weather, plenty of people were on the beach, a few brave souls were in the water and a number of boats were out too. And obviously, the beaches closed long ago in Chicago. Nobody in their right minds could really expect lifeguards, etc. in October. Yet this sign was posted near every entrance to an Evanston beach:

“Lake Michigan is a dangerous body of water. Swimming in Lake Michigan is dangerous and may cause severe injury or death.”

You have to wonder if the lawyers from the McDonald’s coffee case thought that sign was necessary. And I really couldn’t tell if that sign was permanent or just up for the winter season; it might well be up year-round.

It’s probably prudent to keep it up year-round.

There are probably some people out there who don’t know that you can drown in water.