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Jul 8, 2003
This week's theme
Abbreviations and acronyms

This week's words
Rx
snafu
gulag
kayo
gestapo

“All words are pegs to hang ideas on.” ~Beecher
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

snafu

(sna-FOO, SNA-foo) Pronunciation

noun: A bad situation, especially one resulting from incompetence.

adjective: Marked by confusion; chaotic.

verb tr.: To throw into disorder or confusion.

[US military acronym from Situation Normal, All F**ked Up, also euphemistically, Situation Normal, All Fouled Up. Note: We've asterisked the F word here to make sure this newsletter doesn't get held by the email nanny software.]

"But the Burger King snafu is potentially damaging, Cohen said."
Scott Leith; Coke on Thin Ice With Burger King; The Monterey Herald (California); Jun 19, 2003.

"Chief executive Steve Snyder said the snafu was 'literally a cut-and-paste error in an Excel spreadsheet that we did not detect.'"
Drew Cullen; Excel Snafu Costs Firm $24m; The Register (UK), Jun 19, 2003.

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The principal contributor to loneliness in this country is television. What happens is that the family 'gets together' alone. -Ashley Montagu, anthropologist and writer (1905-1999)

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