Among the silliest public notices that I have ever read is at the exit to the present exhibition of Diego Rivera murals at the Museum of Modern Art. It says: “Occupancy by more than 798 persons is dangerous and unlawful.”1

This notice raised many interesting questions. At whom was it directed? At the administrators of MOMA? In which case, why the need for public display? The administrators, however, did not appear to have been making strenuous efforts to estimate, let alone keep count of, the numbers of “occupants,” so perhaps it was the responsibility of the visitors themselves to ensure that they numbered no more than 798. If this was so, which among them in excess of 798, if any, were the guilty parties, the culpable breakers of the law? The first in, or the last out? Or was the responsibility collective?

By what chain of Gogolia ...

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