Filed under: General Peevery | Tags: annoying, beer belly, diets suck! I want real food, drive me up the wall, food, fridge, fridge alarm, grating, low tire pressure, nervous breakdown, peeve, pet peeves, possible uses for a fridge alarm, sarcastic, step away fatty, vent, yahoo news
While I was checking my email earlier, an interesting picture pops up in the news section of Yahoo!.
Underneath the image is the tagline: Do You Know What This Symbol Means?
Well, no.
Back when we got our new-fangled side-by-side refrigerator with the water and ice on the front, we noticed there was a light labeled “Door Alarm” right next to the Snoopy Snow Cone Maker ice setting.
Mr. Peeved: Door alarm?
Peeved: What? Where?
Mr. Peeved: What’s the alarm for?
Peeved: I don’t know, maybe you can set it so that if someone opens the fridge after midnight an alarm sounds.
Mr. Peeved: Hah! That would be great.
Peeved: Yeah, I have a feeling it wouldn’t take you long to disarm it.
Mr. Peeved: Do you think we could set it so that when your mom comes over on Sunday, if she tries to drink more than two of my beers it goes off? [It’s dry on Sunday here in the bible belt.]
Peeved: Hmm, that would be good. Think we could set it so that if someone puts the milk or OJ back in the fridge with enough for only two sips left, it goes off?
Mr. Peeved: Maybe. Think we could set it so that if the kids come in and open the door and just stare in there for five minutes even though they aren’t hungry, it goes off?
Peeved: Ideal! I bet that’s what it’s for.
Mr. Peeved: Well, check the manual. [Because, of course, it is against Man Law to open an appliance manual.]
Peeved: Yep, that’s what it’s for. ‘Alarm will sound if door is accidentally left open for more than five minutes.’
Maybe it was that conversation, or the fact that I was eating my rabbit food very healthy lunch at the time that it appeared on my screen. But, I swear, the only meaning I could come up with was: Lay off the Fritos, Fatass!
Which, would have been the equivalent of making this snarky fridge can into a symbol to accompany the fridge alarm. Blaring bells and a blinking beer belly that would accost you every time you opened the door and took out something unhealthy.
Can you see it now?
As it turns out, this is not what the symbol is supposed to imply. In fact, this little sign is supposed to be so universal that anyone could recognize it as the “idiot-proof” message for: your tire pressure is low.
Well, we all know there is no such thing as idiot-proof. It’s time to make that hypothesis a theory.
At least I don’t feel too bad — 46% percent of drivers couldn’t tell what it was either and one has to assume those dumbasses knew it was displayed on the dashboard.
For those of you with nothing better to do, the full article is here.
25 Comments so far
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Perpetually Peeved 
I was totally thrown by that one! And I should know better, my (!) light has been on for two weeks!!!
Comment by thelifeofjamie August 17, 2010 @ 3:01 pmYeah, my MAINT REQ’D has been on for about a year. I’ll get to it… eventually… when my car won’t start anymore.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 17, 2010 @ 3:19 pmwhat’s sad is that my car has that feature and i’m well aware of what it means…bc it’s always on! but sadly, looking at it here on your blog, i had no idea.
Comment by katie o. August 17, 2010 @ 3:13 pmI’m not saying, I’m just saying… 😉 ha ha.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 17, 2010 @ 3:19 pmI’d like an alarm that goes off when someone (I’m not saying who, but it’s my roommate) takes something out of the fridge and doesn’t put it back. I’m skinny because half our fucking groceries spoil on the countertop.
Comment by temmahkrik August 17, 2010 @ 3:15 pmIf you’re skinny you don’t get to complain here. 🙂 j/k. Now, does your roommate want to move to the Bible Belt because I have a weight loss competition to win.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 17, 2010 @ 3:20 pmWhy did you put the picture of your 4 year old son at the fridge into this rant? How can you be critical of others letting the young lad to be so full of himself so to speak? Other than the extra 300 pounds he does seem like a delightful good natured person. It is funny that while figuring out which next morsel with which to refuel he’s scratching his belly instead of his head. This is not a Kodak moment, it’s a kodiak moment. Grrrr! Do you work a second job to feed him? At least he’ll have a job when he grows up. The earth can always use an extra continent.
Comment by carldagostino August 17, 2010 @ 4:37 pmI don’t have any sons. God was out to get me and gave me girls. That’s actually a photo sent in from the creepy dude that lives next door to you. He’s crawled into your attic and planted cameras everywhere. I don’t know why he would do that. People are weird. Maybe he has a bacon fetish.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 17, 2010 @ 5:10 pmI set myself up for that one. PS His name is Sal. Works at the deli on 6th Ave.
Comment by carldagostino August 17, 2010 @ 5:44 pmAlas, I knew this one. Every winter, my Honda reminds me the air outside has made the air inside the tire cold: thus, low air pressure. I hate that damn light. It makes me nervous, and I bet service guys do everywhere.
Comment by Renee Schuls-Jacobson August 17, 2010 @ 9:54 pmMy wife guessed “train tunnel ahead”!
Comment by gallowaygrave August 18, 2010 @ 4:03 amThat could have been an option, except I don’t have any antecdotes about train tunnels.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 18, 2010 @ 8:33 pmYeah, I love that they came up with this “universal” tire pressure symbol, apparently without testing that theory. I’ve never heard of a refrigerator door alarm, though!
Comment by WorstProfEver August 18, 2010 @ 7:50 amThe door alarm is actually quite disappointing when you realize it’s not that easy to manipulate for your own purposes.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 18, 2010 @ 8:34 pmIt really does look like YOU’RE FAT! And that ! makes it so emphatic!
Comment by Pop August 18, 2010 @ 9:50 amSometimes you just really need to make your point!!
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 18, 2010 @ 8:34 pmStep away fromt the bacon, fatty – hahaha – thanks for making me laugh, really.
Comment by izziedarling August 18, 2010 @ 11:26 amJust returning the favor. 😉
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 18, 2010 @ 8:35 pmHow funny! I like to think I know a good bit about cars (can change my own tire, check my own oil, etc) and when this light came on my dash a couple months ago, I had no clue. I had to look it up in the manual. I still can’t figure out how “that” is supposed to be a tire.
Comment by Amy August 18, 2010 @ 11:49 amIt definitely looks more like a warning that your pants are about to exceed their capacity.
That’s what that is! My car gets more descriptive when I have a low tire. Love Japanese technology.
Comment by Walker August 18, 2010 @ 12:15 pmAs for the ‘frig’ dialogue priceless.. I’d love a little alarm that goes off when I touch the ice cream container!
Mine just keeps saying, “Maint reqd” – it’s like a nagging wife. So, I took my husband’s approach and just keep ignoring it.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 18, 2010 @ 8:36 pmLiterally, the only thing I thought that symbol could mean was that your pants were too low and you had plumber’s crack… really. Guess that means I’m universally screwed when it comes to car malfunctions! LOL, thanks for a good laugh!
Comment by confessionsofacollegegraduate August 18, 2010 @ 2:18 pmYou are welcome! Thanks for coming by and commenting.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 18, 2010 @ 8:37 pmGlad to see that the Rorschach-test style warning symbols in this world have lead you to berate fat people. Personally, I think I’ll slap that warning label on my forehead, lit up, as a reminder that my brain’s “douchebag” capacity has reached it’s limit and I’m about to explode into a vicious series of “go fuck yourself!’s” at any moment.
^.^ Your’s is fun too though.
Comment by Counter Culture Clown August 18, 2010 @ 5:07 pmHmm… that could work.
Comment by perpetuallypeeved August 18, 2010 @ 5:33 pm