Waving the overtime Black Flag at speakers

Dermot Greene of Geek Speaking commented on my last post about timing lights for speakers at Toastmasters meetings. He ended by asking about finding a color for telling speakers that they are way over time, and should sit down. I suggested a purple card (or light). On further reflection I found a stereotypically male answer. 

In automobile racing both NASCAR and Formula One use a Black Flag to tell a driver to get off the track and go into the pits. For those of us who use flags or cards, the last resort would be waving that dreaded Black Flag.

If you had a traffic light timer you could simply turn off the red light. With the multicolor (color changing) bulb you could use another color to get the speaker’s attention. How about blue or magenta? Kmart once used a flashing blue light to indicate a special one hour sale on an item. Get Smart, the old spy spoof television show, sometimes would declare a Magenta Alert