Monday, December 20, 2010

Letters and Numbers and Cliches, Oh My!

I'm a man of letters. And numbers. It would be nice if those letters were something like "PhD," but that's not the case, at least not any time soon. My letters are more prosaic (no, Mike, not Prozac, although that's what I sometimes need to take when overwhelmed by the letters and numbers of modern life).

We are awash in acronyms, abbreviations, and numerical shortcuts that allow us to express ourselves - after a fashion - without having to invest in too much thought. Think about it ...

I thought my 3G phone was great. Then 3GS was the thing. Now it's got to be 4G.

None of this should be confused with 3D, which can only be enjoyed while wearing stupid glasses. Or with Twee-D, who is a bird turned rapper...


Windows 95. Windows 98. Windows 2000. OS-10. iOS-4.

W-2. W-4. 1040. 1040A. 1040EZ.

OMG, WTH? YGBSM! I need some Motrin 800, PDQ! For a time, I was ROTFLMAO, but now I'm just PO'd, and that's not OK.

Combine all those acronyms with cliches, and you have a recipe for ... something. Have you ever seen George Carlin's wonderful "Modern Man" routine ...?



I couldn't possibly have said it any better.

We're starting a new week, and Christmas is just around the corner. I need to start shopping ASAP or I'll be SOL.

And that is not AOK.

Have a good day. By the numbers. And letters.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

4 comments:

Raquel's World said...

Ha. I knew all those except YGBSM..I think I just figured that one out.

KathyA said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KathyA said...

You lost me with a few of these... but you're right... we live by acronyms. I'm trying to think of the first computer one -- and all I can come up with is DOS! I'm sure you could do better.

Mike said...

@Roc - when in doubt, the urban dictionary has the answer.


I still miss Numeric Life.


1st woman - I haven't seen Joe. Do you know where he's at?

2nd woman - You know you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.

1st woman - Do you know where Joe's at bitch?