What is in a Word?

Last week I went to a Chinese herbalist/acupuncturist for a muscle sprain. After the treatment he applied some rather foul smelling ointment to my arm and massaged the area. The ointment came in a small spray bottle which he gave me to take home. The label was written in Chinese, but there was a small paragraph of instructions on the back in English. The Doctor said to follow the instructions.

Later when I got home and had a chance to read the directions here is what it said: (Obviously translated from Chinese) "Message effected (sic) area with hands 4 5 minutes 2 3 times a day."

At first I thought this was going to be a long day of "messaging with hands". They had forgotten to tell me that one two letter word was missing in a couple of places in the instructions. It was the word "or". The instructions were supposed to read: 4 or 5 minutes 2 or 3 times a day.

Maybe this is what has been happening in China more often than we know. Maybe they have been leaving out a couple of small words in their directions. What if they dropped the three letter English word "not" a couple of times by accident. Assume for a second that what the directions really said was, "Do NOT put Melamine in babies milk." This could explain a lot.

Happy Chinese New Year... it is the Year of the Ox, and we are leaving the year of the Rat.... no political comments please.
As you were,
Jay