#2855
05/22/2000 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!
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Carpal Tunnel
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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
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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!
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#2858
06/27/2000 12:59 PM
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old hand
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old hand
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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. 
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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.
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Avy--good going! I especially love the friend ones!
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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.
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old hand
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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 ...
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stranger
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stranger
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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
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>Do you know...
KNOW - Knowledge Negates Ordinary Wisdom
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old hand
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>Hope these help!
Good show Seddonist! I enjoyed those.
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#2866
06/29/2000 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).
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#2867
06/29/2000 11:45 AM
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Wow! These are Gorgeously Rewarding, Educational, And Tantalizing. 
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stranger
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stranger
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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'
:)
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old hand
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Paulb, those are realy sumpin!
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#2870
06/30/2000 10:05 AM
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stranger
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stranger
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HI,
in continuation with that, here's one more
twelve plus one = eleven plus two
cheerio.
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#2871
06/30/2000 10:23 AM
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old hand
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'nother one
TON = The Overweight Numeral
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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.
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stranger
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stranger
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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
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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.
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stranger
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stranger
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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.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Fantastic, JMike, I love it. Thanks for that...
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old hand
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Pooh-Bah
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DIAL=Dial
Or - Is that the point???
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Carpal Tunnel
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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
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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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.
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Carpal Tunnel
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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!
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enthusiast
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sounds like a mix of eugene o'neill (sp?) and raymond chandler to me, jackie
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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!
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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!
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Gosh, jmh, do you really think one day, gulp, I could join that august company?
Maybe August next year.
Bingley
Bingley
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enthusiast
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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.
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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!
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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?
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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
Bingley
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#2891
07/25/2000 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.
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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
Bingley
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#2893
07/26/2000 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.
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#2894
04/02/2001 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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