If you know Italian, you can imagine my confusion upon seeing this sign on the restroom door of the Maccheroni Grill here in Texas. ‘Uomini’ means ‘men,’ you see, so I hesitated to walk in.
The other sign, at least, read both ‘signore,’ and ‘men,’ so after standing in the hallway for a few baffled moments, I opted for door number one: Uomini. Phew! Not a urinal in sight. It was the ladies room, all right.
On the way out, I asked one of the wait staff about the sign. She just shrugged and said that, ‘It was painted by Mexicans. They kinda guessed at the words.’
‘Well, they guessed wrong,’ I told her.
‘Yeah, but it looks real good,’ was her response, to which, I confiess, I had no snappy reply.
How can you argue with that? Blatant racism and cultural insensitivity all rolled up in a pretty package–as long as it looks good, indeed. Gotta love Texas.
It’s so strange isn’t to see these nonsensical signs in English and Italian and sadly, that no one else around me gets. When I take BART into San Francisco, I pass a sign in Oakland that says “Fratelli Brothers”. Maybe it’s the family surname, or maybe it’s an inside joke!
Prof J – I *do* love Texas, but at times, I love Texas the way you love certain tactless relatives!
Homebody at Heart – I get a kick out of redundant phrases like that, too. ‘Chai tea’ for instance, since ‘chai’ already means tea. Hehe!
Thanks for dropping by and commenting! ~Tui
*Sign of the times* with no pun intended.
Oh, you can make all the puns you want, Kala. I love them! :) ~Tui
that is too funny! I guess if it was a non-Italian painting the sign, it sort of sounds right? Uomini – Womeni… I wonder how long it would have taken to check and be sure? 2 seconds?
I agree, the phonetics of it could lead one astray. But – hello – info is so readily available these days. Seems pretty lazy, really! Still, their laziness makes for a funny sign. What gets me is that the restaurant cares so little that they haven’t bothered to change it. ~Tui