It's just as likely Eames would have said that just to say it, versus because something is actually on backwards, but it's lucky that there was, in this case. He tilts his head and tilts the instructions the opposite direction. "It's a shelf, darling, not a Noguchi coffee table." There are limits to how mind-blowing it will be.

Anyway. "I just got the usual, you know, linseed oil, gum arabic." How that is 'the usual' is anyone's guess. (The usual for whatever it is he's doing with it, maybe?) "Oh, and far too much baba ghanoush, if you're hungry when you're done menacing the furniture." See, real food.