BCWYAF*
*Be Careful What You Acronym For
When George Mason University recently named its law school Antonin Scalia School of Law in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice, the school’s acronym ASSoL became the butt of much low humor and raised such a stink that the name had to be changed:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a43545/antonin-scalia-george-mason-law-school/
Expecting that institutional acronyms are fertile ground for further frivolity, I undertook to find more examples (guilt by association?) — but alas and AAALAC (American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care), most of them are about as funny as ARISTOTLE (Annual Review and Information Symposium on the Technology of Training, Learning, and Education); e.g., my trusty old Abbreviations & Acronyms Dictionary contains many more “dogs” (ARF — Advertising Research Foundation or American Rationalist Federation) than LAFS (Los Angeles Funeral Society).
Nonetheless, by sheer dint of dogged research, I managed to dig up the following:
ACNE: Alaskans Concerned for Neglected Environments
BLIMP: Big Look Improvement Motivation Program
BRA: Bee Research Association or Boston Redevelopment Authority
CHAOS: Committee for Halting Acronymic Obliteration of Sense — not to be confused with KAOS:
COSA NOSTRA: Computer-Oriented System And Newly Organized Storage–To-Retrieval Apparatus
FAGS: Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Services
GASP: Group Against Smog and Pollution
HELL: Higher Education Learning Laboratory
HOTLIPS: Honorary Order of Trumpeters Living in Possible Sin
MEDLARS: Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System
OOPS: Offshore Oil-Pollution Site
PLATO: Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations
SIXPAC: System for Inertial Experiment Pointing to Attitude Control
SOCRATES: System for Organizing Content to Review and Teach Educational Subjects
SPASM: Society for the Prevention of Asinine Student Movements (Why not? Students have been protesting asinine society long enough! Fair is fair!)
Speaking of (almost) long enough, I would be remiss to close short of completing your acronym education:
But no such education would be complete without the world’s longest acronym, the honor of which goes to Russia for this space-eater:
NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT English translation: YOUDONTWANTTOKNOW.
And now, at long last, my WORK (Washington Operations Research Council) here is done.
ADIOS (Automatic Digital Input-Output System).
Midwestern Plant Girl 6:01 am on April 10, 2016 Permalink |
Those are hilarious!
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mistermuse 6:08 am on April 10, 2016 Permalink |
Not only that — they’re funny! 🙂
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Don Frankel 9:11 am on April 10, 2016 Permalink |
Back in 1972 one political committee decided not to use the name of their candidate Nixon, as it had a negative connotation. Instead he was referred to as the President. So the committee decided to call itself The Committee for the Reelection of The President or CRP. But the wiseguys decided to call it by all its letters CREEP.
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mistermuse 11:03 am on April 10, 2016 Permalink |
I also remember Nixon on TV telling the world “I’m no CROOK.” But he didn’t deny being a CREEP.
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arekhill1 11:37 am on April 10, 2016 Permalink |
I just wish they had carved the proposed name on a statue or two before they discovered their mistake, Sr. Muse.
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mistermuse 12:30 pm on April 10, 2016 Permalink |
Since I was unkind to Nixon in my previous comment, I’ll refrain from doubling up (or is it down?) on Scalia, Ricardo. Here, I’m content just to be the unreluctant messenger.
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Cynthia Jobin 12:05 pm on April 10, 2016 Permalink |
I find it interesting that the voice of the young man on the video of abbreviations and acronyms sounds so authoritative and believable—and I do feel well informed about what he says until we come to #6: Wi-Fi……that it stands for “wireless fidelity” is an urban myth; it is a Brand, a nonsense word, and doesn’t stand for anything! 🙂
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mistermuse 12:59 pm on April 10, 2016 Permalink |
All I know about Wi-Fi is how one of my dictionaries defines it: a set of widely used product compatibility standards for wireless 802.11 networking….and because I’m an Internet ignoramus, I haven’t the slightest idea what that means, so to me, it was and still is a nonsense word!
The only thing I questioned on that video was the young man’s mispronunciation (re K Mart) of Kresge as “Kreesge” — at least, I’ve never heard it pronounced that way, and I go back to when S. S. Kresge stores were as familiar a part of the American scene as Woolworth’s (which was probably before the young man’s time).
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Cynthia Jobin 1:20 pm on April 10, 2016 Permalink
You’re right…that did snag a little as I listened. I remember Kresge’s, Woolworth’s and Newberry’s…..all of them affectionately referred to as “the Five and Ten..” (…cent store.)
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BroadBlogs 10:23 pm on April 12, 2016 Permalink |
The perfect acronym for anything named after Scalia.
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mistermuse 6:40 am on April 13, 2016 Permalink |
May he Regret In Peace.
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Garfield Hug 11:26 am on April 15, 2016 Permalink |
LOL!!!
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