17 reasons why!

The most appealing things are inscrutable.

I first saw the "17 reasons why!" sign on one of The L-Word episodes and was pretty sure back then it is yet another TV-show prop until I accidentally Googled it.

Lo and behold, was I surprised it actually exists in the three-dimentional world!

Here's some trivia.

It looms over the corner of Mission and 17th Street in San Francisco, pretending to answer yet posing the largest question in The City. The dilapidated metal sign, standing on the roof of Thrift Town. Seventeen reasons to do what? And why 17 reasons?

Along with being a curiosity, the sign has been a source of inspiration. It's the name behind a rap compilation called 17 reasons.

A former San Francisco resident named her band after the sign. "I would see it every time I got to that intersection - I thought it spoke to me personally. I like the enigma of it. Nobody seems to know what the sign stood for," said Sattie Clark, "People would come up with things, but nobody would give me a reason that satisfied me."

"A piece of art," says another San Francisco resident, Alex Orszulak, who uses the sign as a compass because it is visible from many parts of The City, "it's always been sort of mystical. You're not supposed to ask why."

And yes, I believe he's right, "you're not supposed to ask why", because if you do, you're sure to find out the actual fact that lies behind the legendary metal sign and then the magic vanishes.