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#2855 05/22/00 10:29 PM
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Here's one for the clever clogs amongst you....

Can anyone think of acronyms whose components describe the acronym?
An example would be - TOAST - Turn Off Any Smoking Toast.

Look forward to seeing some good ones!


#2856 05/23/00 01:47 PM
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'brick,

I have a whole collection of these, which I'll keep to myself for a bit (rules of engagement you know). But I can hear you asking yourself, "Why?"; well, the short story is that I was looking for a [single] word to describe self-referential, multi-layered and/or recursive acronyms,
8-) and I needed some examples to show what I was talking about.

Here are two, just to show what we're talking about: <g>

Douglas R. Hofstadter, in his excellent book _Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid_ posits GOD (God Over Djinn) in his discussion of meta-language.

The Free Software Foundation's project GNU (GNU's Not UNIX)

"What's another word for Thesaurus?" -Steven Wright

#2857 05/23/00 02:10 PM
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Nice one, Michael. I've heard of the GNU one recently but never the God reference. One that I've just thought of is WORD - written or read daily. Refer to my old report cards - could do better!




#2858 06/27/00 12:59 PM
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Hi!

I think your "Written or Read Daily" is really good. I am sure else where people have compiled some fantastic ones. I randomly chose some words and worked on them. It was mental Sumo wrestling. I could find my mind doing all sorts of contortions. I thought as the words got bigger it would be easier. But it wasn't so - with me. The most tough one was the last one. I found when it comes - it comes fast - and sometimes come double solutions. These are my contributions …

A - Alone (sorry, unpardonable)
BY - Beside You
SUN - Shining Until Now …
WARM - Wrapped and Ready, Mom!
TIGHT - Tanked In Guinness Have They?
FRIEND - Feeling Relaxed In Easy Natural Discussion, For Refuge In Easeless Needy Days

Maybe I could have done better but it was fun. Almost as much fun as the game Lewis Carol invented - called doublets (going from one word to the other, POOR to RICH by making new words changing just one letter at a time). Although Edward De Bono claimed to have invented it, Carrol did much before him. De Bono says the game teaches lateral thinking. I think making up these acronyms is also lateral thinking - because my mind was contorting in the similar fashion while playing Doublets.



#2859 06/27/00 03:03 PM
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>but it was fun

oh, I don't know... most people who do this are members of THIS (Tenebrific Heuristic Initial Society), which speaks volumes.


#2860 06/27/00 04:29 PM
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Avy--good going! I especially love the friend ones!


#2861 06/27/00 04:34 PM
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>>most people who do this are members of THIS (Tenebrific Heuristic Initial Society), which speaks volumes.<<
Ohmigawd. You're probably the president of "this" (!)
Very Over-Long Unique Misguided Educational Society.







#2862 06/28/00 01:24 AM
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>oh, I don't know... most people who do this are members of THIS (Tenebrific Heuristic Initial Society),
> which speaks volumes.

You know that explains it! After I played the game, I just went out and murdered somebody. And I couldn't figure out why I did it! Now I know.

But seriously - and how does the game help the THIS society to produce darkness? Do you know ...


#2863 06/28/00 07:04 PM
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Hello there -

How 'bout these?

YOUNG: Youth Obtain Underground Neap Growth
METAL: Mighty Expanding Tongue Abrasive, Like

Hope these help!

Seddonist


#2864 06/28/00 07:34 PM
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>Do you know...

KNOW - Knowledge Negates Ordinary Wisdom


#2865 06/29/00 02:46 AM
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>Hope these help!

Good show Seddonist! I enjoyed those.



#2866 06/29/00 11:35 AM
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Here's a few conjured up while listening to the first day of the Sydney International Piano Competition (ah! the joys of retirement):

MUSIC - Makes Us Sing In Celebration

FILMS - Flickering Images Light Movie Screens

ACRONYM - A Capital Reminder Option Nudges Your Memory


I wonder what the second day will produce? (apart from from stunning piano-playing).


#2867 06/29/00 11:45 AM
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Wow! These are
Gorgeously Rewarding, Educational, And Tantalizing.


#2868 06/29/00 03:07 PM
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Incidentally, I know this isn't quite the same thing...
but Did U Know that:

'Here Come Dots' is an anagram of 'The Morse Code'

:)


#2869 06/30/00 09:15 AM
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Paulb, those are realy sumpin!


#2870 06/30/00 10:05 AM
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HI,

in continuation with that, here's one more

twelve plus one = eleven plus two

cheerio.


#2871 06/30/00 10:23 AM
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'nother one
TON = The Overweight Numeral


#2872 06/30/00 01:18 PM
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ayyer--
Oh, that is beautiful! Welcome to you.
Hope to see many more from you. To be fair,
since I asked this of another new post-er (that always bothers me!), I'd be interested in how you
got your name, too.


#2873 07/01/00 07:31 AM
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Thanks Jackie but i didn't deserve that...

it was just part of a forwarded mail..... :-)
sorry if it was a disappointment.

Here are some others from there:
"Dormitory" - Dirty Room

"Desperation" - A Rope Ends It

"The Morse Code" - Here Come Dots

"Slot Machines" - Cash Lost in 'em

"Animosity" - Is No Amity

"Mother-in-law" - Woman Hitler

"Snooze Alarms" - Alas! No More Z's

"Alec Guinness" - Genuine Class

"Semolina" - Is No Meal

"The Public Art Galleries" - Large Picture Halls, I Bet
"A Decimal Point" - I'm a Dot in Place

"The Earthquakes" - That Queer Shake

"Eleven plus two" - Twelve plus one

"Contradiction" - Accord not in it


And finally, I can't resist this eventhough it might not be terribly decent.
It's just too good.

"President Clinton of the USA" : "To copulate he finds interns."

Have fun,
Ayyer


#2874 07/01/00 08:34 AM
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Have you guys been visiting the other areas of wordsmith.org?

Feast on this:

http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html


#2875 07/02/00 07:07 AM
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>Feast on this:
>http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

A JUAN RAM I
A JUAN MAR I I’m suspecting I’m suffering from bad case of “juanphobia”.

A JURA MAN I I can swear I’m as Spanish as “paella”.

MARIJUANA -stoned...-

AURA JAM IN Anybody there with a Kirlian camera?.


Juan Maria.

#2876 07/18/00 04:17 PM
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Since telephones have pushbuttons now, the use of the word "dial" as the verb for entering a phone number is not appropriate, unless you realize that it is an acronym:

Digitally Initiate Audio Link

(I believe this was the winning entry in an NPR contest to come up with a new verb for "dialing" - the Brits of course have no such problem since they "ring" a number.)


#2877 07/18/00 04:44 PM
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Fantastic, JMike, I love it. Thanks for that...


#2878 07/18/00 09:01 PM
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EDIT: gah. . .nevermind

#2879 07/18/00 09:04 PM
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DIAL=Dial

Or - Is that the point???


#2880 07/19/00 05:40 AM
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In reply to:

(I believe this was the winning entry in an NPR contest to come up with a new verb for "dialing" - the Brits of course have no such problem since they "ring" a number.)


Actually, I think we do both. Dialling a number is inputting it, while ringing a number is actually making contact. At least that's the best answer I can come up with after a long dark teatime of the soul wondering about it.


Bingley



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#2881 07/19/00 05:54 AM
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>We do both. Dialling a number is inputting it, while ringing a number is actually making contact. At least that's the best answer I can come up with after a long dark teatime of the soul wondering about it.

I agree. We tend to dial the number so that we can ring/call or phone someone.

Bingley, judging by your last post I am wondering if you should get out more . I think you are definitely an "addict" in the making.


#2882 07/19/00 04:59 PM
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>>a long dark teatime of the soul<<

Isn't there a very similar line in a book that I'm not recalling?
That could almost (God help me) be a country music song title!


#2883 07/19/00 05:12 PM
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sounds like a mix of eugene o'neill (sp?) and raymond chandler to me, jackie


#2884 07/19/00 06:17 PM
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>>The long dark teatime of the soul<<

..by Douglas Adams, author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "The Meaning of Liff", et al.

Essential reading!

#2885 07/19/00 07:50 PM
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>>..by Douglas Adams, author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "The Meaning of Liff", et al.<<

Thanks--I knew I'd read that somewhere!




#2886 07/20/00 05:16 AM
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Gosh, jmh, do you really think one day, gulp, I could join that august company?

Maybe August next year.

Bingley


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#2887 07/20/00 06:36 PM
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amazing how memory fails me!
i saw an interview with douglas adams and he said he'd received countless letters with theories about the 42 thing. i was interested to hear that he wrote "the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" in his 20s.


#2888 07/23/00 09:47 AM
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>>Dialling a number is inputting it, while ringing a number is actually making contact.<<

Strictly speaking, isn't making contact what happens after the ringing?

So in fact we have three stages - we dial the number, we listen to ringing while the network tries to make contact and then if we're lucky we might have a phone conversation.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it!


#2889 07/24/00 06:45 PM
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>>if we're lucky we might have a phone conversation<<

...and why is it that you never get a busy signal when you have dialled/rung/connected with a wrong number?




#2890 07/25/00 05:18 AM
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In reply to:

and why is it that you never get a busy signal when you have dialled/rung/connected with a wrong number?


How would you find out that you had?

Bingley



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#2891 07/25/00 11:25 AM
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>>and why is it that you never get a busy signal when you have dialled/rung/connected with a wrong number?<<

David, it's for the same reason that, when you've been
searching for something, it is always found in the
last place you look.




#2892 07/26/00 04:38 AM
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Which reminds me of the possibly apocryphal story of someone who wrote to a biscuit company suggesting that as the top biscuit in the packet usually turned out to be broken into little pieces, they leave the top biscuit out in future.

Bingley


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#2893 07/26/00 11:21 AM
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<someone who wrote to a biscuit company suggesting that as the top biscuit in the packet usually
turned out to be broken into little pieces, they leave the top biscuit out in future>

Which reminds me, Bingley, that such a person in Tasmania (at least) would be known (politically incorrectly) as one biscuit short of a packet

… and, while we're on this subject, where have all the broken biscuits gone -- an essential part of a young fella's diet in the mid-50s.




#2894 04/02/01 11:00 AM
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And with reference to at least 3 threads: Acronyms, politically incorrect terms for the less intelligent, and a reference in another thread to FNQ (Far North Queensland) residents speaking slowly.

When I saw FNQ it reminded me of the acronym NFQ (or whatever last letter fits your local environment). This is used in several proffesions (Nursing, Schools) and means "slow, educationally sub-normal". It is derived from "Normal For Queensland" (or wherever).

Rod


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