They Should Call It NO TURN ON STUPID, Amirite?

MY PROGRESS
So far, my Lenten don't-be-a-pig pledge is working out, sort of. We got a pizza tonight and I devoured only one piece, plus a garlic knot, though I was hungry enough to eat three slices and then lick the box. The pizza box. You can argue that I shouldn't have eaten any pizza at all, but hey, baby steps. Baby steps made with gooey mozzarella-y feet.

I also hit the treadmill and burned 454 calories, fast-walking 2 miles in 30 minutes on the 15-degree incline, according to the display. I might go have a post-workout beer, and I'll come out even.

ON TO THE STORY
A couple of months ago I started noticing these new NO TURN ON RED signs. They're like the old NO TURN ON RED signs, only they added this big red dot:

They needed TWO signs for this traffic light.

There could be only two reasons, both insulting, for these new signs, a.k.a. my tax dollars at work. The Road Signs Department are afraid that:

• Drivers don't know what the letters R-E-D mean

If a guy doesn't know what R-E-D means, how can we believe he's gonna know what N-O-T-U-R-N-O-N means? The other assumption is that:

• Drivers don't know what the color RED is

...which must be why they have to spell it out for us with that red dot.

But if you don't know how to read R-E-D, and you don't know what the color red is, then maybe you shouldn't be behind the wheel in the first place.

What worries me is the driver who takes the sign literally and stays at the corner forever, because he knows he's not allowed to make a turn on red, and that big red dot will always be red.