If you do this, then `'{}'` will appear in the translation file. I think it is a bad idea, to a translator seeing the string `'{}'` will be confusing and they very well may mis-translate it, add words, etc.

It is better to do
```
var = item['thing']
_(var)
```

because `_(var)` will look up the value of `var` in the translation file at runtime, but our static analysis scraper will not scrape anything in this call.