Lost in Translation

English is pretty abundant here, on signs and menus and with the exception of grocery stores, it hasn't been difficult to find people who speak English really well. Product labeling in stores has been the source of some confusion, causing me to almost purchase fabric softener instead of laundry detergent and fooling me into buying water softener salt instead of dish detergent. Perhaps because of the large number of English speakers here there are fewer translation mishaps than you'd see in, say, Japan, but there is still plenty of material to bring a smile to a native English speaker's face.

Take the aforementioned laundry detergent....

Not sure who thought it was a good idea to name the stuff 'Colon 101'. I tried to squint my eyes to see if it were some fancy font of Hebrew meant to be read "backwards" but it really can't be. I can only hope that "colon" means "clean" to Israelis.

I kept wondering why the dishes weren't getting clean and why the "detergent" crystals were so large and difficult to put in the soap tray. Here is the box of stuff that turned out to be water softening salt "Recommended" by several leading dishwasher companies. I can read the word "chadash" in the yellow banner which means new and I can now read the word "melach" in the red banner beneath the 'finish' logo which means salt. In any case, this company has devised a great scheme to get you to buy detergent, rinse aid, and now water softener as well. Good times. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing if the dishwasher actually does work if you put actual soap in it.
There are a few restaurant names worth mentioning as well. Buzz Stop for one, which is a bar. I guess the proprietor wants to stop there if you want a buzz rather than that place stops/kills your buzz which is how it sounds to me. Never been there myself so I can't comment on the effect of the place. And "Alcohol on the Beach." Nothing wrong with this name, per se, but perhaps a little softening around the edges might help.

Buzz Stop, as you can see, is especially awesome because it clearly targets a certain nationality. As if the flag weren't enough, there is Lady Liberty in all her glory.
Incidentally, it says "Buzz Stop" transliterated into Hebrew lettering as well.