knudsen (11/23/82)
I don't know how far back acronyms (a.k.a. alphabet soup) go.
Nice to see the Hebrews had them then (I thought they were a millenium
ahead of the world only in religion and law), but I guess we all assume
that acronyms were invented by FDR (self-descriptive), the Army,
or Bell System. Although "OK" is possibly derived from "all correct",
mispelled of course.
However, once you have an abbreviation of any sort, I agree with Andy
that the urge to pronounce it is irresistable! Even when you have
to supply a few vowels (ok, now I see why the Hebrews got there first...)
Army folk always prono8unced the PRC series of radio gear "prick";
Bell Labbers always said "tiss-piss" for TSPS, etc.
And even Lewis Kornfeld, who just published a whole book on how to
advertise (and not advertise), and brags about his name for Tandy
Radio Shacks's personal computer, didn't realize in time that
it would forever be "Trash-80".
>From the inventor of MUSEC (which some folk call MUZAK) -- mike k