It’s official. The economy is in the tank. I’ve now seen a sign that can mean no other thing.

Twice today, around noon and a bit after 4pm, I ventured outside and saw the same thing: a man wearing a sandwich board and handing out flyers. This is serious.

“What?” you say. ”What’s the big deal about seeing a man with a sandwich board handing out fliers? That’s a street team. That’s urban marketing.”

Fair enough, but in all the years I’ve lived downtown and we’re talking 10+ here, I’ve never seen a guy wearing the sandwich board for the local fortune teller. While that particular business was not in my footpath, I’m pretty sure it’s the same sandwich board that normally sits outside the stairs to it.

Fortune telling has its up and downs. I remember seeing one storefront rebranding itself as “crystal consulting” back during the dotBomb days. Fliers getting handed out, every once in a while. The sign that marks the door taking a walk around the neighborhood, that just smacks of desperate times.

Now maybe the fortune teller foresaw great business through a walking billboard. And then again, maybe I’ve seen a sign.