Email and Bacon and Icon Ambiguity...

Seen recently on Facebook (thanks to cousin Ross!), this image is good for a quick laugh and a case study in icons.  It can be challenging to design icons without text labels - and this is a frequent goal for products, so you don't need different versions for different countries.  The currently fashionable minimalist style sometimes makes this worse - in this situation, that style would perhaps show a circle and a line, or an open circle and a closed circle, neither of which clearly communicates which function is which.  At least with the "email and bacon" icons, even though they're not very stylish, you can tell what you're getting.  And without a funny picture border, you'd never accidentally think it's a digital message or a side of pork belly!