I Blame Apple Computer!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have been using computers since before Windows was a gleam in Bill Gates' eye. Yes, Virginia, there was a time before Windows. It was called DOS, or Disk Operating System. You may have heard some of the "old timers" in your office referring to floppy disks. In fact, there is a TV commercial out right now that talks about this very thing. There really used to be diskettes that were flexible - hence the name "floppy disk". They were black thin square things that were 5 1/4" square and they were bendable. Later came the rigid and smaller 3 1/2" floppy disk. Why they kept calling them floppy disks is beyond me. Maybe rigid disk just didn't trip off the tongue in the same way.

But, back to my title line. When Apple Computer came out with their operating system, they used a graphical interface. Up until then, everything was done via a command line and you actually had to input data in real words and had to know a small bit of code or a lot of code, depending on what you were doing. For the average user, the programs didn't require you to code or program anything, but if you were copying files from the hard drive you actually had to type in something like c:\ copy d:\test file.

If you were using a word processing program such as Word Perfect, there were menu items that said "file", "edit", etc. across the top and everything in the menu items were in actual words. Go figure. So, unless you were completely illiterate, you could find what you needed to do, read the instructions, and accomplish your task.

Enter Apple Computer and their graphical interface. Suddenly, there were pictures or graphic images in place of words. You are all familiar with it now. There's a slanted "I" if you want to make some text italic. There is a tiny pair of scissors that you can click on if you want to "cut" some text out of a document. So, not to be left behind, Microsoft came out with their Windows operating system. I have been through every Windows upgrade with my close and personal "friend", Bill Gates, except Windows ME (which even Microsoft will admit was a piece of garbage). I refuse to upgrade to the newest system until it has been out for at least 3 years, so I am using Windows XP, even though Vista and Windows 7 have been out for a while.

Again, I digress. Returning to the reason for my rant of today. I bought some new bras. I was getting ready to wash them this morning and, trying to be a good consumer, decided to actually read the washing instructions. I could not find any washing instructions. I finally found some marks or symbols on the tag, but they were so small I had no idea what they were. I got out the magnifying glass to see better and could barely make out what they were even then. There were four symbols. The first one looked like a glass of water with something in it, maybe a temperature or a hand. The second one was a black triangle. The third one looked like the outline of a clothes dryer. And, the fourth one was the only one I could definitely make out. It was the outline of an iron with an "X" through it. Now, call me stupid, but even I have never been one to iron my bras.

Anyway, after getting my husband and granddaughter to look at these symbols, none of us could figure them out, so I decided that the first one that looked like water must mean you could wash them in some temperature of water that you could stick your hand in comfortably - I chose "warm". I ignored the black triangle and went on to the third one that looked like the clothes dryer and, since it didn't have an "X" through it, I was happy that they had finally invented a bra that could be put in the dryer.

I put the clothes in the washing machine, transferred them to the dryer when they were ready, and then started thinking about those dumb symbols. Why couldn't they just put real words and some actual washing instructions? Why use these symbols that no one could figure out. If they really wanted people to wash their items correctly, wouldn't it be better to tell them how to do it??

My curiosity got the better of me. I am a firm believer in "inquiring minds want to know". My ever faithful Google did not disappoint me. I typed in "What do laundry symbols mean" and, sure enough I got five pages of symbols and the explanations of them. By now, my bras had been in the dryer for about 5 minutes, and, since it was their first time, I had already decided to only let them stay in there for about 8 minutes and then I would hang them up.

It's a good thing, since here is what those stupid little symbols really meant. The first symbol that I thought was water with a hand in it, actually was water with a hand in it. Only it didn't mean water that was not too hot to put your hand it. It meant HAND WASH ONLY. Failed that test. On to the black triangle. that meant NO BLEACH. Not to worry, I don't use bleach. The third one that I thought looked like the outline of a dryer was really a square with a semi-circle line across the front. It meant LINE DRY ONLY. Never in my entire life have I seen anything that looked like that symbol that could remotely resemble a clothes line. Failed that test. And, we all know that I don't iron bras, but I got that symbol right.

So, I blame Apple Computer for sending us into the age of graphics only and leaving words out in the cold. Street signs have pictures - no words. There are symbols on food products that you can't figure out. Just try to use an ATM without knowing what all the symbols are.

I suppose if I ever met Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer, and I did him physical harm, they could have a symbol of a tiny stick figure woman chasing a tiny stick figure man and trying to put her stick figure fingers around his scrawny little stick figure neck. That's the international symbol for "Give me back my words, you moron."