Friday, July 24, 2020

Lost in Translation

Today I saw these instructions on the side of a steam table while waiting for some takeout food:


"The body must be earthed" seemed a bit ominous. What body? Were they storing bodies in the steam table?

I wonder if it it's supposed to mean "The plug must be grounded"? (Earthed? Is that a verb?)

The second line is almost a miracle of clarity, in comparison: "Prohibit burning heater in dry" must mean "Don't run the heater without water in the trays." Right?

And, "Do not wash the electric box," well, that seems a bit unclear since the whole thing is electric as far as I can tell, but I guess there's some part that's particularly electric and it shouldn't be washed. Okay, I'm sure I could figure that out.

3 comments:

Marsha said...

Reminds me of the VCR instructions from the '80s.

Jean said...

I love it. It's poetry!

Michael Leddy said...

I thought it must be an odd translation. But Merriam-Webster has it: “to connect electrically with a ground.” Said to be “chiefly British.”