"Here's your sign" moments

Yep, that’s it. Having it spelled out like that nicely illuminates the full extend of my, errm, absent-mindedness, too. :o

Here’s your sign: I know that. :smiley: I was asking why 14 out of 15 people come in complaining about something other than “bug bites”. What are these obviously very common “other causes”?

Answered by Alice, above.

Woah, that’s unfortunate.

I’m not sure it’s as true up here in Ontario though - I’ve never had an infected mosquito bite, but I’ve had Blackfly bites get infected many times. Unlike mosquitos, Blackflies feed by chewing a hole through your skin, which then they leave open - it is very vulnerable to subsequent infection.

So before you give me my sign, too, please explain this specific expression, because I don’t understand it, either. What’s the secondary meaning of the phrase besides the obvious wrong one - that unfinished furniture is being sold?

(BTW: over here, we do have special rooms in IKEA for example where heavily-used show-room pieces, returned broken furniture and parts of furniture are sold cheaper - for people who like wood-working or who can’t spend too much money, but a broken cabinet is better than no cabinet).

Unfinished in that context usually means unvarnished, unstained, etc. Basically that it’s the raw, untreated wood.

Finish when referring to wood or furniture means the stain and/or paint. They are just “raw” wood for lack of a better term. Furniture sold at IKEA is not finished. You need to buy the paint/stain/sealant/wax separately and paint/stain/seal/wax it yourself.

“Unfinished furniture” refers to furniture that is completely put together, but doesn’t have any paint, stain, varnish, etc. on it. It is just plain wood and you are supposed to apply the paint or other finish yourself.

The person in the post was taking the phrase to mean incompletely built furniture.

The unfinished furniture thing reminds me of one.

A friend was in the car with another friend, when they passed by a store called “Job Lots.” The other friend said “Hey, I wonder if they can find me better employment.”

Here’s your sign.

Of course, when the first friend related the story to me, inwardly I was saying “Yeah? So did they?”

Here’s my sign.

Thanks for the triple-post with the explanation.

But as an avid IKEA-visitor, I’ll have to add that a lot of IKEA furniture is indeed finished, that is, painted. A lot of IKEA products are not solid raw wood, but particle boards, which are naturally finished. Other lines of products are stained/painted/dyed a certain colour (e.g. the Lesvik series is the colour of teak, though the wood is cheaper pine.)

But IKEA is really famous (of course) for furniture that’s “un-finished” because it’s not assembled! You take it home in a cardboard box, read the instruction and try to make things work while you curse. :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh I know, dudes always think their little mark is a “spider bite”. :dubious::rolleyes: "Bug bites’ could be a mosquito, a fly, a flea, or a few others, but almost never a spider. If you have been bitten by the Black Widow, you know it.

I have a battery powered TV. It’s craptastic, true, but it has been useful when the power went out.