November 01, 2004
Risk of Choking
We stopped at the McDonalds in Otopeni on Saturday. That's the first town north of Bucharest, where the airport is. The McDonalds sits right on the main road north to Ploiesti.
(We were coming back from a trip to a little horse farm, where Alan rode on a pony for the first time ever. I'm sure someone will be posting some photos real soon now.)
Anyhow: we bought a Happy Meal -- look, we're parents with two small children, okay? Happy Meals are a part of our life now, and probably will be for a while to come. Alan, age two and a half, now recognizes those golden arches from a mile away. "French fries!" he cries. And it is, dammit, convenient. No, I'm not defensive about this. Not at all. -- We bought a Happy Meal, and it came with a toy, and the toy was in a plastic wrapper. And on the plastic wrapper, it said:
"ENGLISH -- Risk of choking -- small parts. Please retain information for reference. Drain after each use."
That was all. Except that the plastic bag was covered with writing, on both sides.
Why? Because it repeated that same warning in thirty-five different languages.
That is not an exaggeration. I counted. Here they are.
Azerica (the language of Azerbaijan)
Bulgarian (in Cyrillic; all languages were in their native alphabets)
Castellano (i.e., Castilian, i.e., Spanish.)
Catalan
Czech
Danish
German
Georgian
Greek
Estonian
French
Croatian (not to be confused with Serbian!)
Hebrew
Icelandic
Italian
Latvian
Lithuanian
Magyar (Hungarian)
Macedonian (not to be confused with Serbian! Or Bulgarian!)
Arabic
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Slovenian
Serbian
Suomi (Finnish)
Swedish
Turkish
Ukrainian (not to be confused with Russian)
There are some interesting things about this list. Frex, there are a few languages missing. No Albanian, Armenian, Bosnian, Irish, Kurdish, Slovak, or that weird fourth language they speak in Switzerland. Guess that shows you guys where you rate. Ronald McDonald, he knows you not.
On the other hand, Catalonia is now an independent country now, apparently. And The Language Formerly Known as Spanish is now "Castilian". Go figure.
McDonalds appears to be shipping these toys from one central factory to restaurants all across Europe and beyond -- from Iceland to the Caspian Sea. Sort of awe-inspiring, when you think about it.
Anyhow. I'm keeping the plastic wrapper. Maybe I'll have it on hand, the next time I hear an American acquaintance grumbling about how everything in the States is written in both English and Spanish these days. Or maybe it'll just be a tangible symbol of European... um, something.
Posted by douglas at November 1, 2004 12:50 PMI have two questions, if I may:
1) How big was this wrapper? (Bigger than a breadbasket?) Seems like a lot of info for one wrapper.
2) Was the difference between Croatian and Serbian simply that the latter was written in Cyrillic?
Posted by: Michael M. at November 1, 2004 01:41 PMWhen Doug brings the wrapper home from work, I'll take a picture. It's not that big -- about the size of an open hand.
Posted by: claudia at November 1, 2004 01:57 PM"On the other hand, Catalonia is now an independent country now, apparently."
That would make Stephen Maturin very happy! :)
Posted by: Diane at November 1, 2004 03:30 PM"look, we're parents with two small children, okay? Happy Meals are a part of our life now, and probably will be for a while to come."
Ah, yes. The Golden Arches of Nutrition. They saved our lives many a time (g).
The toys can be a little tricky sometimes. Once (the boys were probably 6 and 3), we went to TGAN for some fine McCalories, only to discover to our *horror* that they were OUT of the promised Hot Wheels toys. But they did have Barbie dolls.
Occasionally, I can be quick on my feet; fortunately, this was one of those times. Kipper and Alec were VASTLY disappointed in the unexpected turn of events, so...I put on my best spin control hat and announced that these were *special* Barbie dolls: they were *Klingon* Barbies from the Home World.
Well, THAT was a doll of a different color! The Klingon Barbies had many hours of fun battling the Star Trek Next Generation action figures. Those dolls could really kick b*tt. I, personally, saw Captain Picard lose in a fight with one of the plastic Klingon hotties!
I'm sure there must be some kind of Barbie handbook somewhere and I'm equally convinced that nowhere in it will appear the probability that Barbie is really an alien being. :)
Lorraine
Posted by: Lorraine at November 1, 2004 07:30 PM