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Previous: "Quality" electronic device | Main | Next: "Too Tall" Chocolate Easter Bunny package
May 3, 2007 12:03 AM
Broken: Hair dryer instructions
Mallory O' Connor submits a picture taken in a gym in Vancouver, Canada:
This sign appears at the gym I attend – the YWCA in beautiful Vancouver. It alternately makes me weep with laughter that we need such a sign in the women’s (or anyone’s) change room.
I felt a little weird taking this photo on the sly with my phone, but probably nowhere near as silly as the designer who had to be briefed on the assignment to create this happy-hairdrying-hair-on-head-only icon!
I wish they had these signs in China; if people would follow them. At least in the men's locker rooms in Beijing, I've witnessed people attempting a full-body drying job with a hair dryer (spending a lot of time drying their crotch).
I'm speculating that perhaps due to the large recent Chinese immigrant population in Vancouver that some people (apparently including women) are attempting the same thing?
I guess I don't see what's so terrible about using hair dryers for other areas... it's a bit weird, yes, and a waste of electricity, but is it harming others so much so that we need a sign about it?!
I understand that TIB is running low on entries, so maybe that's why this one is here, but I honestly don't see what is broken with the sign.
It does seem silly that such a sign is required, but that requirement doesn't make the sign broken, does it?
Maybe I'm just confused and mesmerized by the mohawk on the smiley face guy... :)
I was once in a restroom where there was a sign over the sinks that read, "No Orinar in la Piscina." I asked a manager if that was a problem here, and told me that he didn't even know what that sign meant.
why the heck would you want to dry "downstairs" with a hairdrier. isnt that what a towel is for?
generally hair dryers are meant for head hair not other areas that may include hair but can be quickly dried with a towel.
so the sign does make a point and not really broken unless your weird and dry other bits with the hair dryer
Yale:
It was a manufacturing plant, not a restaurant. The word "piscina" can mean pool or sink (just like reloj can mean clock or watch). Since there was no swimming pool around, I assumed that it meant sink. Why one would think that a sink is an appropriate place for that is beyond me.
If the sign wasn't there, and you witnessed one of the many foreign immigrant/visitors to Vancouver using the dryer to dry things other than their head, you would say that it's broken because there was no sign.
If you were someone used to using the dryer to dry things other than your head, you would also say that this sign is broken, because there is no real reason why it can only be used on your head.
Ethnocentrism is broken.
This tickled me so much I've made a livejournal userpic from it. If anyone wants to use, go ahead :)
I wonder if they just want to prevent people from drying their whole body (because of time & energy use). But the particular words they use really seem to suggest "other types of body hair".
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Previous: "Quality" electronic device | Main | Next: "Too Tall" Chocolate Easter Bunny package
I don't even want to know...
Posted by: ashleyriot_vs at May 3, 2007 01:15 AM