Let's enjoy Japanese: Don't judge me too harshly!

In a recent post I briefly introduced the kanji 中止, which means cancellation. In the comments, Ol' G Dawg pointed out an interesting expression that accompanied it on the big display. It's a little cut off, but you can read most of it - 悪しからずご了承ください。What does it mean? I had an inkling but was unfamiliar with this one, so I did a little research.

According to Yahoo, 悪しからず(あしからず):

［連語］相手の希望や意向に添えない場合などに用いる語。悪く思わないで。気を悪くしないで。「どうか―御了承ください」

So it's an expression that you use when you've gotten someone's hopes up or they have certain expectations and you let them down. Essentially it means "Don't think poorly of me" or "Please don't be too upset with me." If you tack a ご了承ください (ごりょうしょうください) to the end, it becomes a little nicer and more polite.

Someone on another Japanese site mentioned that this expression isn't casually used a lot, as it can come across as being 皮肉 (ひにく, sarcastic). So I suppose this is a good one to be able to understand and recognize, but probably not one you'll be throwing around in daily conversation.