KFC’s Smiling Grandfather： Colonel Sanders

True Stories of Colonel Sanders

桑德斯上校的真實故事

A majority of Americans ages 18 to 25 don’t know who Colonel Sanders was.

大多數18到25歲的美國年輕人不知道桑德斯上校是誰。

According to USA Today， 61% of respondents didn’t know who the guy with the beard in the KFC logo was.

據《今日美國》報道，61%的受訪者不知道肯德基商標上那個留著胡須的老人是誰。

For anyone who grew up in America in the second half of the 20th century， the Colonel was a true icon.

對于任何一個在20世紀后半葉長大的美國人來說，桑德斯上校是一位真正的偶像。

You didn’t need to be able to read to know who he was； you didn’t even need to watch TV.

你不必識字，甚至不必去看電視，就可以知道他是誰。

Anyone who drove a mile in any direction would see his beaming， grandfatherly visage and white suit and know that Kentucky Fried Chicken could be found there.

往任何方向開車行駛一英里你就能看見他笑吟吟的如祖父般慈祥的臉，還有他的白色西裝，然后你就知道肯德基就在附近了。

Maybe not everybody knew that he was the chain’s founder or remembered his TV commercials from the ’60s and ’70s， when he talked about how each piece was dipped in an “egg wash” before frying.

也許并不是所有人都知道他是這個連鎖炸雞店的創始人，或者并不都記得20世紀六七十年代他的那個電視廣告，在廣告中他講解了每塊雞肉在油炸前都是怎樣在“蛋汁”中浸泡的。

But， at least， they knew he was real.

但是，至少大家都知道，確實有這么一個人。

However， half of the young adults in the survey， which was ordered up by the chain， assumed that he was the creation of KFC， rather than the other way around.

可是，在這次由肯德基組織的調查中，有一半的年輕人認為這位老人是肯德基創造出來的虛擬標志而不是確有其人。

In fact， the Colonel wasn’t just a fast-food baron who represented his company on TV. Sanders was the living embodiment of what his food supposedly stood for. His white suit wasn’t the invention of a marketing committee； he wore it every day and was never seen in public for the last 20 years of his life in anything else.

事實上，桑德斯上校并不僅僅是一個在電視上代表肯德基的快餐業巨頭，他據說還是肯德基食物的活化身。他的白色西裝可不是市場營銷部門的發明創造；他每天都穿著它，在他人生的最后20年里，他一直堅持在公開場合穿著它。

He was a failure who got fired from a dozen jobs before starting his restaurant， and then failed at that when he went out of business and found himself broke at the age of 65.

在自己開餐廳之前，他是名失敗者，曾多次遭到解雇。之后在他65歲那年，他的餐廳歇業并宣布破產。

He drove around in a Cadillac with his face painted on the side before anybody knew who he was， pleading with the owners of run-down diners to use his recipe and give him a nickel commission on each chicken.

他開著車身印有他頭像的凱迪拉克車到處兜售，那時人們還不知道他是誰。他懇請速食店的老板們使用他的配方，而每烹飪一只雞就給他五分錢的傭金。

majority n. 多數；大多數

respondent n. 回答者；答卷者

icon n. 偶像；代表人物

beam v. 笑容滿面；眉開眼笑

visage n. 臉；面容

suit n. 西裝，套裝

chain n. 連鎖店；連鎖集團

dip v. 浸；蘸

fry v. 油煎；油炸；油炒

survey n. 調查；民意調查；民意測驗

assume v. 假定；以為；假設

baron n. 巨頭；大王；大亨

represent v. 代表（個人或團體），代理

embodiment n. 典型，化身

supposedly adv. 據認為；據推測

invention n. 發明；創造

committee n. 委員會

failure n. 失敗的事，失敗者

dozen num. 一打；十二個

broke adj. 破產的；缺乏資金的

plead v. 懇求；請求

recipe n. 烹飪配方；食譜

nickel n. 五美分；五分鎳幣

commission n. 傭金；回扣

assault v. 襲擊；毆打