The yet-to-open Sweetgreen revealed a cryptic message to passersby after a bunch of their lettering disappeared this week. (Photo: TBD Staff)

Arlington's reputation as a clean, green, friendly utopia on the Potomac hasn't come out of nowhere. Potholes are fixed, bricks are realigned, improperly trimmed trees are remedied. But there must be some glitches, at least some tiny imperfections in the well-manicured matrix that is Arlington. In Imperfect Arlington, we search for and document these anomalies, and, most likely, take note of how quickly they are repaired into oblivion. Have you caught Arlington off its game? Send us a tip.

It looks like a few of the letters in the window signs for the Ballston location of Sweetgreen mysteriously disappeared yesterday. (And by "a few" I mean "most of" because this window was previously covered in words marketing the soon-to-be-opened store.)

Is Arlington no longer a place safe for exterior window decals? We checked, and these letters were affixed to the outside of the windows. Or could the unsuspecting salad chain have been inadvertently violating the county's sign law, resulting in removal of the offending letters?

Or maybe some Captain Eo-loving prankster just saw the opportunity to represent. After all, the exact same letter pattern was left on both window displays at the shop.