Signs of Life: Part 15

From Brussels Air's Business Lounge in Brussels, Belgium. I've seen a lot of different "rest rooms" in airline lounges, but this one had a clever name.

101 Uses for an Air-Sick Bag!

From the seat pocket on a Brussels Air plane. The missing text from the top read, "This paper bag can …"

I can hear you say, "I'm glad you brought that up, Rex!"

On the back of the door in my hotel room in Lillehammer.

I guess this happens when the window has no screen cover.

BTW, the Norwegian text shows all three of the letters that language has over and above the 26 English ones: Æ/æ, Ø/ø, and Å/å, shown here in uppercase/lowercase. When looking in a dictionary, they come after a–z, in the order shown above.

This literally is "a shop for adult girls".

OK, vaskeri is Norwegian for laundry, but what is the significance of the ladybug?

Actually, Marihøna is the name of the business, and that is Norwegian for ladybug.

Those Norwegians seem to have words for everything!

"Seat pads for Sale! Only NOK279 (US$36) each! Get them while they last!

Oh, and did I mention that the skins were "donated" by local reindeer?

I love gyros—especially with copious quantities of tzatziki sauce—which originated in Greece. What caught my eye was the clever use of the uppercase Greek letter delta (Δ) as the letter A.

An up-scale women's clothing store.

Now in the good old days in the British Commonwealth, pharmacies where called chemist shops. If you have traveled around England or been exposed to English culture, you'll know about the chain of Boots the Chemist shops (now known simply as Boots) with its distinctive logo. Well, the company is alive and well, and present in Norway, where apotek means drugstore, from the word apothecary, from the Greek.

And, yes, that is snow and ice on the ground!

So, you're hungry, and you're at the Lillehammer railway station. But what to buy? Apparently the soup of the day (dagens suppe) is sold out, but the stir-fried chicken (kyllingwok) sounds good. And, for the little ones, the kid's burger (barneburger), pasta, and pancakes are still available.

Did I mention that the Norwegians have words for (almost) everything!

There I was in Oslo visiting the grave of my dear backgammon-playing friend, Gunnar, when I came across this map of the cemetary. While I understood all the signs at the bottom, I was quite surprised to learn that people might think that riding a horse around a cemetary was OK.

I came across this sign while walking around the fjord in Oslo. What caught my eye was the presence of pigtails/braids/plaits, suggesting a girl. Perhaps Nowegian boys don't need/want to be seen in public holding their father's hand!

OK, at a first glance, you read, "THE SPA". But if you look again, you'll notice the extra space between the H and the E. And if you look even closer, you see who stole the two letters!

Click here to learn more.

OK, it seems reasonable to prohibit the kicking of soccer balls in certain places, but this sign was on the glass wall inside a very large revolving door! My guess is that it really applied to the large indoor shopping area beyond.

If you've ever wondered what those dog kennels do with all that doggie drool they collect, now you know. They bottle and sell it!

According to the label, "It's SODAsgusting".

This from a shop window in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Of course, after a while, one can tire of dog drool. So, why not have some toxic slime instead?

Now Avery's Soda has other enticing flavors in their "Totally Gross Soda" line. For example: Fungal Fruit, Bug Barf, Kitty Piddle, Monster Mucus, Zombie Brain-Juice, and Swamp Juice. Isn't that, like, totally awesome?