As I was looking at a clothing tag this week, I noticed that it had the content in two languages:
What none of us is capable of, however, is deciphering those annoying laundry tag symbols. Whose idea was it to put those on our clothes? I have no idea what they mean, except I can figure out that an "x" through the iron means either (a) take this to the dry cleaner or (b) I don't want to buy this article of clothing. If there are only symbols on the tag and I have already bought the item, I gamble and wash it.
I looked up what the symbols mean, and they're pretty involved and not readily apparent. At least not to me. A triangle is for bleach. What does a triangle have to do with bleach? I can't think of a more appropriate symbol for bleach off the top of my head, but there must be one. Like a bleach bottle?
The temperature to wash in is always in Celsius. Sorry, but I don't know how to convert that without going on the computer. I know the rest of the world is on the much more sensible metric system, but we rejected it back in the Reagan years. And if the fabric contents are listed in 2 or more languages, how come we need universal washing symbols? If you can't read, you probably can't crack the laundry code.
I think that whoever forced the laundry hieroglyphics upon everyone is the same person who invented "zip code plus 4." Everybody just ignored that, too.
50% cotton/50% cotonNow, I could be missing something, but why is it necessary to print 2 languages when they're essentially the same? Could the English-speaking among us not figure out that "coton" means cotton? And vice versa for our Spanish-speaking associates? Granted, I would have noticed that "cotton" was misspelled had they only put the Spanish version. But I still think it's ridiculous.
50% modal/50% modal
What none of us is capable of, however, is deciphering those annoying laundry tag symbols. Whose idea was it to put those on our clothes? I have no idea what they mean, except I can figure out that an "x" through the iron means either (a) take this to the dry cleaner or (b) I don't want to buy this article of clothing. If there are only symbols on the tag and I have already bought the item, I gamble and wash it.
I looked up what the symbols mean, and they're pretty involved and not readily apparent. At least not to me. A triangle is for bleach. What does a triangle have to do with bleach? I can't think of a more appropriate symbol for bleach off the top of my head, but there must be one. Like a bleach bottle?
The temperature to wash in is always in Celsius. Sorry, but I don't know how to convert that without going on the computer. I know the rest of the world is on the much more sensible metric system, but we rejected it back in the Reagan years. And if the fabric contents are listed in 2 or more languages, how come we need universal washing symbols? If you can't read, you probably can't crack the laundry code.
I think that whoever forced the laundry hieroglyphics upon everyone is the same person who invented "zip code plus 4." Everybody just ignored that, too.
