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The 17th Street sign is clearly visible
As I was walking over to Trader Joe’s a little while ago, I saw a man and a woman standing on the sidewalk about half a block ahead of me. The woman was furiously futzing with her phone, and the man was just standing there.
The way they were standing, they were effectively blocking anyone from passing through, and as I approached I wondered if they would move a bit to let me get by. And yes as I got within a few yards, the man sidled out of the way, but I noticed he was staring at me.
When I got up beside them he asked, “Which is the way to 13th Street?” as he pointed in the correct direction.
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Two doors with their numbered street addresses in plain view
“That way,” said I, pointing in the same direction.
Now I can sympathize with a stranger in a strange city trying to find his way, and had he asked for directions to South Street or Market Street, I would have understood.
But he was standing in plain view of 17th Street, and directly in front of a building with the address 1716. From those two pieces of data, he should have been able to infer the direction to 13th Street.
And even if the 17th Street sign hadn’t been in plain view, he was actually standing in front of two buildings with 1700 block addresses. From those two addresses alone he should have been able to correctly figure out the direction to walk.