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Cafe brazenly risks citation from department of sanitation

Mark Frauenfelder at 12:45 pm Fri, Mar 15, 2013

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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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  • theophrastvs

    obligatory Marx_brothers (“Horse Feathers”)…
    Wagstaff: [Hangs up phone. Baravelli and Pinky arrive carrying blocks of ice. They deposit them in the wall safe] That’s a fine way to carry ice! Where are your tongs? [Baravelli and Pinky stick their tongues out] Looks like a tong war.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713743906 Marc Caldwell

    That’s horrifying to imagine, specially when including non-human tongues…

    • Antinous / Moderator

      A forked tongue would probably be more efficient and less slobbery.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

    So what do are you supposed to use to lift the cover?

    • http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait

      probably tongs.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop

    I’m embarrassed how long it took me to understand what they were getting at.  I first wondered if it was some sort of joke, responding to some health department complaint by being sarcastic…

  • Warren_Terra

    Maybe they thought it was an anglophilic spelling of “tongs” – much as the American English word “homolog” is spelled “homologue” in the Queen’s English.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Uh, some of us here in the US still use -ogue endings. As far as I know, it’s still considered standard English, even here.

      • Warren_Terra

        I resort to the unquestionable authority of some random contributor to Wikipedia! Beat that!

        (Less snarkily, I was taught that “homologue”, “pedagogue”, etcetera were the British-variant spellings. Although I may have been taught incorrectly).

        • Antinous / Moderator

          News to me, but I still use the subjunctive, prepositions and past participles like ‘stricken’.

  • voiceinthedistance

    What is this gibberish, are they speaking in tongs?

  • dragonfrog

    “Please wash your tongue before taking cookies”

  • http://www.beaucomeaux.com bocomo

    joke signage? put there by customer?

    • Warren_Terra

      Heaven knows, such does happen.

  • secretdoubleagent

    In an unfunny vein, it’s my understanding that the use of tongs actually increases chances of spreading communicable disease, since multiple people will handle them, whereas (assuming some jerk doesn’t go pawing around the cookie jar) customers are more likely to only handle the cookie they’re taking if they use their hands.  

    • Warren_Terra

      Not a bad point, but if you’ll notice, the consumer of cookies must lift the lid from the tray. Any germs liable to be transferred to the handle of the tongs would likely first be transferred to the lid handle (assuming no infectious agents on one hand holding the tongs that aren’t also on the other hand holding the lid), and would be picked up by the customer whether they touched the tongs or no.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Thus, pickups.

      • voiceinthedistance

        At least the midgets will be free from the spread of germs.

    • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

      It’s mad isn’t it? The sign should just say ‘don’t paw at the food’.

  • CLamb

    You lick it you bought it.