It is impenetrable, except for a small metal door tightly locked, and featureless, except for a blue-and-white sign marked with its address: 85 Jay.

Outside, the worn blue-and-white sign says "Thomas Beauty Salon."

With a new, blue-and-white sign posted on the old terminal reading "Sarajevo International Airport," this former front line reopened today in a ceremony presided over by Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Bosnian Government officials.

But the minute we drove past Lost Valley's familiar blue-and-white sign I saw I was wrong.

If not for a small blue-and-white sign directing employees and visitors to the parking lot off Evans Street, there is nothing from the street to indicate that, instead of boxes and crates, this warehouse stores human beings.

New blue-and-white signs direct Jews and Muslims to separate entrances and security checks.

On the wall beside the doors I saw a faded blue-and-white sign - the international pictograph indicating there was a phone inside.

Along the highway where witches pick up trash, blue-and-white signs mark the way to the scientists' own kivas and moradas: the "Tech Areas," outposts of the main lab, where some of the research is done.

Then I saw the blue-and-white sign for the Chase Bank branch.

Today, Wal-Mart's ubiquitous blank box and blue-and-white sign represent our withdrawal into a sealed, homogenized world.