Showing posts with label avoiding lawsuits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label avoiding lawsuits. Show all posts

Monday, July 14, 2008

Gettin' Old Is A Bitch!

Especially if you live in an English-speaking country!

I've been meaning to write about this for some time now. In fact, every time I barbecue something I think to myself: "Gotta blog about this one of these days!" (See? Told ya!)

Well...

"One of these days" is...TODAY!

My Weber grill has warnings prominently displayed in ten different languages. But for whatever reason, the good people at Weber feel it's necessary ONLY IN ENGLISH to warn us to "...keep young children and the elderly away." This was pointed out to me a couple of years ago by a Belgian colleague of Mrs. TBF's who speaks English, Dutch, French, and German, with a smattering of Italian and Spanish. I proudly added my two cents worth by confirming that the Finnish translation - Pidä lapset loitolla! - also did not mention the elderly. However, I was also quick to point out that Finnish was the only language where the good people at Weber deemed it necessary to include an exclamation point!

What's up with THAT?

I'm guessing it was probably brought up during a brainstorming session at Weber HQ that the Finns - being a stubborn people - would just ignore the warning, so the folks at Weber added the exclamation point to show the Finns that they meant business. Or, at least that's my theory.

And all this talk about the elderly reminds me of another thing I've been thinking about...

When is a person "officially" elderly? My dad is in his early-70s, and he told me the magic number is 80. He also told me that when he turns 80, he's going to tell me it's 90. It's not really that important for me to know when we're here, but we're leaving for America this Saturday, I plan on doing some grilling while I'm there, and I want to know before I go so I can...

...avoid getting my ass sued by some "elderly" American person.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Thanks For The Warning!

I bought us a new toaster on Friday.

There was nothing wrong with the old one, but I just felt like getting a new one.

We also bought a new kettle. Again, nothing wrong with the old one.

You see, we had built up about a zillion Super Points at our local Coop grocery store, and I was able to buy the toaster and kettle (already bought a new blender a couple of months ago) at significantly discounted prices.

As I see it: the discount brought the price down to only about 50% more than the stuff would cost in America!

Speaking of America...

The fine people at Kuhn Rikon (the manufacturer) obviously have America in mind as a potential market for their fine appliances.

Why else would they have put this ridiculous warning on top of the toaster? Just to be safe, I left it out on display all weekend.

I'm happy to report that Mrs. TBF made toast this morning, and she didn't burn herself!

Let's hope I remember not to put my fingers inside the toaster.