Subject: Re: Acronyms
From: Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Date: Thu Oct 12 2000 - 16:28:54 GMT
>
> that's the only way to do it - laying the words in, one by one,
> formally, carefully, lovingly.
I don't know, Scottie. It all smells just a bit like 'green ink' to me--and
I seem to recall you roasting that particular writerly fetish, in these very
waters, not so long ago.... (Although the fact that there's a collective
memory that could actually tell me EXACTLY how long ago frightens me some
little bit. Thank gawd I wasn't around when people posted in the fashion
you quoted from the 1997 post about post-structuralism! THAT's when people
really knew how to lay the words in, one by one, formally, carefully,
lovingly.... )
There are certain acronyms that I almost couldn't do without--and maybe it's
instructive that most of them are military. Here in the Great White North,
we used to have an anti-Soviet missile defence system called the DEW Line
(for 'Distant Early Warning'), and I'd have trouble with any more lengthy
designation. Walter Cronkite used to talk about the DMZ (using that quaint
'Meruhcan pronunciation of 'Zee') so much that I'd have difficulty
understanding what anyone mentioning the De-Militarized Zone could be
talking about. Then there are PCBs.... And have I mentioned AIDS?
Like I say, most of my 'must have' acronyms are of military origin, and the
others that spring immediately to mind are far from friendly. So why do I
find that Herr Salinger's stories lend themselves so suitably to acronyms?
And why do I feel like I'm suddenly sprawled across your couch, Scottie?
Cheers,
Paul
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