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08 Feb 11 - 12:59 AM (#3090919) Subject: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion A thread ongoing on Best Organisation Names reminds me of my delight in appropriate acronyms {"acronym" used here in the true & correct sense, not just of an abbreviation, but of one pronounceable as a word in its own right, like NAAFI or NATO}. Two which come to mind are MADD {Mothers Against Drunk Driving} and STOPP {Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment, from the days way back when there was still corporal punishment in some British schools}. More, please? ~Michael~ |
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08 Feb 11 - 05:39 AM (#3090986) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Dave MacKenzie For a short time I chaired our office's Ferranti Users' Consultative Committee (FUCC) |
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08 Feb 11 - 05:49 AM (#3090989) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion Reminds me that that Cambridge University Musical Theatre, a company whose productions I review occasionally, use their initials as an acronym. I can never decide if they are being ingenuous or disingenuous. ~M~ |
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08 Feb 11 - 06:24 AM (#3091012) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion In fact, now I bethink me, they are the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society; which is even better... |
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08 Feb 11 - 06:30 AM (#3091014) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion Not to mention the disingenuousness of the labelling of French Connection United Kingdom! But enough of these ambiguities. Any more really appropriate ones, please?... |
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08 Feb 11 - 04:55 PM (#3091330) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: GUEST,Eliza Progressive Management Systems PMS. (There is a website called Unfortunate Acronyms, which has quite a few presumably genuine howlers.) |
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08 Feb 11 - 05:31 PM (#3091351) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Bill D There is a Quaker founded college in Wichita, Kansas which has spent years denying that their official name is "Friends University of Central Kansas". Same with "Sam Houston Institute of Technology" In both cases, tee-shirts have been made and songs written....so any students will know the reference. |
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08 Feb 11 - 06:07 PM (#3091385) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: C-flat Unfortunate Acronyms |
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08 Feb 11 - 06:19 PM (#3091396) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: saulgoldie For the sake of accuracy in this thread, please note that an "acronym" is an "initialism" that can be pronounced as a word. An "initialism" is merely the first letters of a commonly used expression that does NOT suggest a word. SNAFU--acronym for "situation normal, all fouled up." FBI--INITIALISM that refers to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, not pronouncable as a word. And yes, I WILL be back to call out anyone using these terms interchangeably, which they ARE NOT!!! NO ONE IS IMMUNE from my wrath! Words and definitions DO MATTER!!! Saul |
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08 Feb 11 - 07:34 PM (#3091449) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: maple_leaf_boy My favorite acronym isn't an organization, but a show. KOTH. It's a shame it got canceled. |
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08 Feb 11 - 08:35 PM (#3091488) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Bill D BART.. Bay Area Rapid Transit |
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09 Feb 11 - 12:10 AM (#3091549) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Slag MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction was one of the greats. |
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09 Feb 11 - 01:40 PM (#3091896) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion A sort of related but reverse misfortune occurred to a cousin of mine. He founded a helpline in the early 1980s, and called it Aids ~~ just as the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome became worldwide news. Tough. ~M~ |
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10 Feb 11 - 03:41 AM (#3092270) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: GUEST,CrazyEddie British Association of Plastic Surgeons. BAPS |
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10 Feb 11 - 04:00 AM (#3092278) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Slag TGIF? Sure Happy It's Thursday! |
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10 Feb 11 - 11:02 PM (#3092894) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion Really Easy For Rather Eccentric Submissions Here! |
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11 Feb 11 - 06:02 AM (#3093018) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: GUEST,Eliza Deliberate acronyms in the forties put on the back of envelopes to loved ones from the front line include N.O.R.W.I.C.H. ('Nickers Off Ready When I Come Home) |
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11 Feb 11 - 06:05 AM (#3093021) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion SWALK ~~ sealed with a loving kiss ~~ another envelope backer. |
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11 Feb 11 - 06:11 AM (#3093026) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: GUEST,Eliza MtheGM, can you remember any others? There were quite a few but I've forgotten them! |
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11 Feb 11 - 06:13 AM (#3093028) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion So have I, Eliza; but if any come back to me I shall certainly post them. ~Michael~ |
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11 Feb 11 - 06:36 AM (#3093038) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: theleveller GODS = Growing Old Disgracefully Society. Anyone over 50 can join. |
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11 Feb 11 - 07:01 AM (#3093056) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Acorn4 We used to make them up when I was teaching:- Personal Re-training in the Art of Talking Twaddle Further Attempts to Reorganise the Timetable Wasting Everybody's Time with Further Attempts to Reorganise the Timetable Ascending Rectum of Senior Executive in the Hope of Obtaining Long Expected Scalepoint There were others. |
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11 Feb 11 - 09:16 AM (#3093144) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: HuwG I recall watching the finish of the RAC Rally at York Racecourse in 1975 or thereabouts, as a schoolboy. (Yes, I was sneaking off, but the rest of my class had also sneaked off to watch York City FC play Southampton in the FA cup.) The BBC camera team kept asking bystanders to shuffle sideways, to conceal the logos of the Fiat Abart Racing Team from a shockable public. |
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11 Feb 11 - 11:57 PM (#3093717) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion More, please? ~Michael~ |
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13 Feb 11 - 01:43 PM (#3094464) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion HOOF ~~ Hands Off Our Forest ~~ from the Forest of Dean, my first wife's native country.. See Billy Bragg version of This Land Is My Land above the line. ~Michael~ |
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14 Feb 11 - 01:57 PM (#3095175) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Little Robyn SWALBAKWS - Sealed with a lick because a kiss won't stick. We used them on the back of our envelopes here in NZ as well! Robyn |
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14 Feb 11 - 09:13 PM (#3095424) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: GUEST,Guest LDB Dave MacKenzie said : "For a short time I chaired our office's Ferranti Users' Consultative Committee (FUCC)" Good thing it wasn't a United group... "Ferranti Users' Consultative Committee (FUCC)- United" |
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15 Feb 11 - 08:34 AM (#3095603) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: CheshireCat A software company I used to work for had a sales director who liked to think he knew a thing or two about the technical side of things as well and was looking for an impressive new job title to show it off. It was suggested by the real techies in a staff meeting that he be referred to as "Supreme Head of Information Technology", a title he adopted enthusiastically until someone spoiled it by explaining to him. |
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16 Feb 11 - 04:47 AM (#3096259) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Rog Peek MtheGMs reference to French Connection reminds me of a t-shirt I saw in ireland, It had printed on it: FCEK Made in Ireland Rog |
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16 Feb 11 - 08:35 AM (#3096396) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: SPB-Cooperator Annoying Concept of Recycling Old Names with Your own Meanings |
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26 Feb 11 - 11:31 AM (#3103058) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion My first wife, an academic and writer, would often have to concentrate fiercely on her reading or her computer. At such times she would warn me off interrupting trains of thought &c with the useful code-word INVEST ~~ formed from I'm Not VEry Speakable To. ~Michael |
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02 Mar 11 - 06:31 AM (#3105483) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion I learn from her obit in today's Times that Jane Russell founded a charity called World Adoption International Fund [WAIF]. |
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02 Mar 11 - 08:00 AM (#3105542) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Mr Happy EETPU: Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union |
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03 Mar 11 - 12:12 AM (#3105986) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: GUEST,Fred Mothers Against Dislexia - DAM |
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03 Mar 11 - 07:01 AM (#3106115) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion SWAT team {Special Weapons & Technology} |
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03 Mar 11 - 07:14 AM (#3106124) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: DMcG An ex-boss of mine came up with a paragraph, the details of which are lots in the mists of time, but it was a description of a product made by the company 'Marconi', who we worked for at the time. Taking the first letter of each word to create an acronym gave "Marconi lollipop man's Teatime Assorted Biscuits." |
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03 Mar 11 - 07:18 AM (#3106128) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: DMcG [Ok, that is, strictly speaking, an acrostic rather than an acronym] |
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03 Mar 11 - 07:38 AM (#3106133) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Jack Campin Back when Glasgow was City of Culture in 1991, the council sponsored an expensively pointless exhibition on the city's history, only to change its name shortly before it opened when somebody pointed out that "The Words And The Stones" might be read acronymically. |
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03 Mar 11 - 07:49 AM (#3106140) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: TheSnail I din't know if vegetarians are excluded from membership of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust. |
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05 Mar 11 - 10:01 AM (#3107435) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: MGM·Lion ···humorously ambiguous job references. Readers sent in many examples, such as "You'll be lucky if you can get this man to work for you". There's even a book of them, The Lexicon of Intentionally Ambiguous Recommendations or LIAR for short.··· from Michael Quinion's Worldwide Words, 5 Mar 11 |
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05 Mar 11 - 12:52 PM (#3107543) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Newport Boy GODS has already been mentioned - it's also the acronym for the Gloucester Operatic and Dramatic Society. Appropriately, their small theatre was called the Olympus. I always liked the fingerpost at the end of the street which said: OLYMPUS - Home of the GODS Phil |
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06 Mar 11 - 02:10 AM (#3107915) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: Neil D One of the classic ones was Nixon's re-electon comittee in 1972. They were called the "Committee to Re-elect the President" and used the imperfect acronym "CREEP". |
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06 Mar 11 - 09:10 PM (#3108565) Subject: RE: BS: Appropriate acronyms From: darkriver An acronym that Dare Not Speak Its Name: First Unitarian Church of Kensington (California). Rather than resort to that, the church refers to itself as the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley (even though it is in Kensington). |