#491 Source of Course

Every era has its ERA. The Equal Rights Amendment, remember? Or was that Earned Run Average? One of the first episodes in my life of acronymic confusion. I’m fully aware that if you want to be exact about it, ERA is not an acronym unless you actually pronounce it as a word but who is exact in this grammatically murky language we call American? The big problem with initials over words is that, depending on whom you’re talking to, they could come away with entirely different meanings. If I’m talking about equal rights for women and you think I’m talking baseball pitching statistics we could drop the conversational ball right away. So it behooves one to be careful. International Business Machines’ new initialization IBM worked for them only as long as nobody put out a commercial with a caveman introducing himself by the name Em. “Ug. I be Em.” Cavemen do get lots of fiber. AT&T must be working since every time a larger company swallows it up its initials keep getting regurgitated back out as its singularly memorable name.
The there’s the PDA confusion. Personal Data Assistant or Public Display of Affection? You choose. With the new sleek shapes and vibrating ringtones one could probably name it a Private Data Assistant as well. Or perhaps a Private Digital Assistant. There was a while there where I didn’t go anywhere without my Palm Pilot. And I know my palm better than most.
And if the confusion of PDA isn’t bad enough, what about the confusion of ED? Ed used to be a pretty straightforward term of address to a relatively whitebread middle class sort of guy. Hi Ed, how ya doing? Seen Ralph lately? Now ED is an acronym for Erectile Dysfunction. Which, sorry, still sounds like the iron framework of a new skyscraper collapsing. Maybe the Freudian Towers. But my big problem is I’ll never view talking horses the same again. Go right to the source and you’ll endorse there’s nothing that leads to a divorce of course unless of course it’s lack of force from the famous Mister Ed.
Wilburrrrr
America, ya gotta love it