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--- "Jones, Donna" <DJones -at- zebra -dot- com> wrote:
Simplicity and
> legality don't always go together. You rarely see a
> caution as concise as
> "Do not cook." One of the required cautions in our
> documentation states:
> "The cutter blade is sharp. Do not touch or rub the blade
> with your
> fingers." Apparently, the simpler, direct statement: "Do
> not touch cutter
> blade," left open too many possibilities, so we had to
> change it.
>
You didn't mean the blade, you meant the edge. (How could
someone change the blade if they couldn't touch it.) <g>
What's wrong with a couple of extra words in a
non-life-threatening situation. Instead of DO NOT COOK (I
can heat it up if I want to, dammit) why not, "This product
is not meant to be cooked." Or "...is meant to be eaten
cold." (Who cooks pb&j?) Or for consistency with the
other products in the line: "Directions: Open package. Eat
pastry."
My favorite, though, is on those Presto-Logs you use in the
fireplace instead of (or along with) real wood. It says
something like: Do not put more than one prestolog on the
fire at a time. I STILL want to know why. What will happen
if I do? Will it blow up? Will the house explode? I don't
see any reason not to give some kind of brief
justification.
Some orders are more useful than others.
Maggie
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