Cobain gets an oblique honor

Aberdeen, Wash., the hometown of the late Kurt Cobain, has erected a memorial to its most famous son, Kurt Cobain, the rock singer whose complicated life and legacy have made for mixed civic sentiments in the small logging town. The municipality’s border near its eastern bluff is now marked by a new $750 sign that reads: “Welcome to Aberdeen: Come As You Are.”

The second line is familiar to even casual Cobain fans as a signature song title from Nirvana’s 1991 album “Nevermind.” The sign does not name Cobain, who died in a shotgun suicide 11 years ago this month.

It was purchased by a committee that includes Jeff Burlingame, arts and entertainment editor for the Daily World, the local paper, and it was crafted via contract by inmates at the nearby Stafford Creek Correctional Facility. The city footed the bill for installation.

“After getting feedback from Kurt’s fans across the world, we settled on ‘Come As You Are’ because it had dual meanings,” Burlingame said in the paper’s coverage. “Nirvana fans will understand the significance, yet it’s vague and appropriate enough that the meaning is applicable to everyone.”