Random Variables :: random thoughts deep and wide
Sunday, 19. October 2003
Acronym Finder

Here's what an acronym is, according to m-w.com:

Main Entry: ac·ro·nym
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
Date: 1943
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term

So, you want to know what, let's say, FWIW means. Then you go here:

http://acronymfinder.com

Just for a hoot, type in your initials and see what comes up. One friend, TDH, got "tall, dark, and handsome."

All I got was "Journal of Reproductive Medicine."

Unfair! Foul!

Another site, with no popups, is

http://acronymsearch.com

On both sites, you can submit an acronym for consideration.

Scientists are so brainy, they have plenty of three-dollar words, so a Big Government entity like NASA (that's an acronym) has its own 14-page Space Mission Acronym List. I, confirmed non-scientist that I am, was afraid to look too far.

Speaking of government entities, just when I'd thought I'd found the IRS's devious list, I was disappointed to discover it belonged to the British Institude of Rural Sciences. Probably wouldn't have understood anything anyway.

Other specialized interests have their lists, too. There are medical lists galore, including one just for doctors and med professional titles. Then there's the Dog Fanciers' Acronym List. I didn't find a feline list, other than the mention of FADD, Feline Attention Deficit Disorder. (Must be endemic to the species.)

Acronyms, as the 1943 date for the word suggests, are a modern invention, or at least, a modern flowering of use, because we're too much in a hurry for the long version. If Reader's Digest boils down the articles and books for us, acronyms must zip our language into tighter bits to speed along the slow communication process.

Now that you know more than you ever wanted to know about acronyms, IOH.

= I'm outta here.

... Link


Saturday, 18. October 2003
Wanting a used copy ...

of Hans Kung's book, Why I Am Still a Christian.

Used means cheaper. ;-)

Phil Sanders mentioned this title somewhere, and I'm interested in reading it. Kung is a renegade Catholic scholar.

... Link


Ignore This Title

Remember the couplet from yesterday sent to the editor who had a wrong title in the subject line? I've noticed I have this bad habit of skipping titles and subtitles when I read, and that carries over to emails oftentimes. So with that, I wrote the editor. (Though I didn't give my quatrain a title then; this one was added today.)

Ignore This Title
by J. Randal Matheny

I overlook consistently
The titles and subject lines;
I much prefer the town itself
To fuzzy highway signs.

While you're reading and, I hope, smiling, why not tell me why you're smiling. Or not smiling. Or whiling away the time. Or whatever. Let me hear from you. Hello? Hit that little red phrase below that says, "talk to me." You take it from there.

... Link


Friday, 17. October 2003
The Big Difference

An ezine I subscribe to sent out an issue with a trial subject line. Shortly, came an apology. I wrote this couplet to the editor, along with a quatrain that, if I remember, I'll send you tomorrow. Here's the two-liner:

The Big Difference

To err and hide is human, human;
divine, to open and illumine.

... Link


Wednesday, 15. October 2003
Wanna blog?

I ran across these sites recently that offer decent-looking blogs.

http://lifewithchrist.org

http://www.motime.com/

Depending on what you're looking for, since antville isn't handing out any more freebies ...

... Link


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