An interesting feature of my ride to work in recent weeks has been a series of chalked messages written on the wall by the South Gate of the University campus. The first one I saw (which happened to be on a Monday morning) was:

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH...

"Heh", I thought while waiting for the traffic lights to change, "it's funny because it's true. It's Monday morning and here I am, back at the ranch." It made me smile, and wonder who was posting these messages and why. Students were the obvious culprits, given the location, but that didn't answer the "why" (other than with "because they're students"). In these advertising-saturated times, it also occurred to me that it might be some kind of particularly cryptic viral ad campaign.

Then I saw another message, again on a Monday:

DON'T BE AFRAID IT'S ONLY LOVE

For some reason, that immediately planted an earworm of Kate Bush's 'And So is Love' from 'The Red Shoes'. The words are different, but the sentiment is similar, and that was apparently enough for my brain to place the needle in the groove on my mental vinyl.

Anyway, I'm intrigued. If I see any more messages (I've been going in a different gate so far this week for one reason or another), I'll report back via Twitter.