Greetings one and all... and in particular my 9 followers if you are still reading on a regular basis.
Today's "Sculpture By the Sea" picture is one I tried to use in my very first posting. Due to my inexperience at that time, I'm not entirely sure I managed to get it included in the text. That's kind of besides the point really, because today I'd like to give some thought to acronyms, that is, the notion of several words abbreviated in such a way that if forms an alternate pronounceable word. The picture above has certainly helped lead my thinking on this matter.
OMG ( as featured in the picture) has possibly become one of the most used and widely recognised acronyms we have at our disposal in the current day. Certainly in the English speaking world it's universally understood and often uttered with different inflections and nuances to give a variety of emphasis to what the speaker is attempting to convey.
I first came across the wide and wonderful world of acronyms when I was in my mid teens, during the 1960's. I inadvertently stumbled across a group of acronyms the wonderfully ironic book, Catch-22, all of which quite tickled my fancy. They were old US military slang terms which had their genesis in the fires of World War 2. SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up) quite rocked my young sense of humour. As did its pals, FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) and TARFU (Totally and Royally Fucked Up). I thought it was amazing that men under such great pressure could come up with something so witty, yet precise and to the point.
I naturally enough had further encounters with acronyms during my teen school days. These, along with a variety of mnemonics, were dished out like candy to help young minds remember pertinent facts such as the order of colours in the rainbow (ROY G BIV) and the order for correctly completing arithmetic computations (BOMDAS). Some of the mnemonics I learned in those days are still like old friends and I call on them often. See Mr Harrison Eating Nice Oranges was a great way to remember the Great Lakes of America and also where Niagara Falls fitted into the scheme of things.
Another acronym we used was designed to help remember the order of planets in our solar system was (MOVE MY SUN - do I really need to spell that out for you??). The odd thing was we had to add a letter P at the end of that particular one. It seems someone had gone and discovered the planet Pluto since the inception of the acronym. While it didn't make a great deal of sense at the time, it was still useful as an exam aid. I suspect they may have now deleted that P, mainly because recent improvements in stellar observations seem to indicate Pluto was never a planet after all!!
During the heady days of greed and avarice on Wall Street during the 1980's, a wide variety of commonly used acronyms made their way to us via newspapers, magazines and word of mouth. These sometimes had the letters IE added to the end of them, presumably to make them roll off the tongue a little easier. Examples of this particular brand of acronym included YUPPIE (Young Urban Professional) and YUMPIE ( Young Upwardly Mobile Professional). My personal favourite was LOMBARD ( Lots of Money, But A Real Dickhead)!
Since then, and particularly with the advent of the smart phone and texting, things have accelerated greatly on the acronym front. ( On that note... can you believe its only 11 odd years since these gadgets made their way into our lives. Hard to fathom the incredible impact they've had on so many fronts.)
The world is now awash with acronyms that are predominantly used to try and simplify complex computer, scientific and government naming processes. Beyond that arena, they have also ubiquitously infiltrated their way into our general communications, particularly in the cyber environment. Some of these of course come and go quite quickly YOLO seemed to be an example of this. You Only Live Once was probably a victim of its own over use. Most people these days seem to have a number of handy acronyms at their ready disposal - ones such as DIY, SMH, FYI, TBH and the eponymous LOL and LMAO spring to mind. In broader minded circles, that last one has even been extended to include LMFAO. Both variations of always make me giggle a bit. I always imagine crowds of dropped asses ( arses for those that care) floating around the ether like tumbling tumbleweeds.
So...as I sit here pondering whether it is acronyms or language in general that have been fucked up beyond all recognition (FUBAR), I realise that its each to their own in this world, and I shall therefore draw no conclusion apart from observing that acronyms and fun, useful but also a little invasive
