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Fun with Acronyms
11-10-2015, 02:07 AM
For some time now, I've been working on an alternate-history scenario (not for publication; just to write out the background so I can stop thinking about it). It mentions in passing the creation of a mostly-economic pact I called the Pacific Commercial Entity (the U.S., China, the Philippines, Hawai'i, Japan, Annam, and a few others). For several months, I was more-or-less satisfied with that name. And only today did I realize what I'd get if I made it the Pacific and East Asian Commercial Entity....
Considering that I'd already stated this group brought together multinational troops to counter at least one invasion, the acronym is quite appropriate.
Aaaaarrrgh.
Edit: Underlining to clarify.
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Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
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Heh.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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When my friends were running for student government, we originally ran as the Students for an Orwellian Student Senate Slate (SOSSS, pronounced /s?sss/) to differentiate ourselves from the club we were in, Students for an Orwellian Society (because 2015 is 31 years too late). The next time we got non-club members to run, like Rob Roy, the preeminent figure of the Pirate Ship, a local party house. So we needed a new name.
We were running against a slate called L.E.A.D. (which was horribly bacronyized from Leadership, Empowerment, Activism and Determination), so Chad comes up with a great idea: We would be the Friends Urging Campus Kindness. The name was mostly inspired by our vendetta against the Elections Committee, which had decided that censorship of our previous platforms was a great idea so we would provide them something new to censor. Hey, it wasn't our fault that the EC Chair's boyfriend had stolen those books from the bookstore.
Most of the joke came from the fact that we wouldn't use the acronym to describe ourselves. We'd call ourselves "Urgers" or "Friends", like some sort of foul-mouthed Quakers. With a ten-page platform that was much more detailed than anyone else. That was my work. I never actually ran because I was in the process of becoming a grad student at the same school, but Rob totally won office. I became a technocrat instead. Three years later, I ended up being a highly-respected elder statesman, because institutional knowledge is always useful.
Anyway, 10 years later, someone has revived the name of the Friends Urging Campus Kindness, and is running for office right now. It's nice to know my work wasn't forgotten, two generations later.
-- ∇×V
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Good for you, Vort! Good for you!
Canadian lighthouse to U.S. Warship approaching it: "This is a lighthouse. Your call!"
Stephen Mann
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So, years ago, I was running a Champions game where the PCs were newbie heroes apprenticed to a veteran hero. When they first appeared, the press asked for their team name. Since they hadn't thought about that, one PC mentioned that they weren't really full-fledged heroes, more like Super Heroes In Training....
For the first few weeks, the shit jokes flew fast and furious. Once their mentor disappeared and the press started to really shred their reputation, the PCs didn't do much joking any more...
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I've toying with the idea of suggesting to the Office of Personnel Management that they adopt Saitana the One Punch Man as their official mascot. There is the issue of licensing and of course the "Not Made In America" issue.
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Into terror!, Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
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A couple of decades ago, I worked for the Department of Supply and Services - until they changed their name to the Department of Government Services. That lasted for about a month, until we were merged with another department...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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I like that, Rob. Makes me think about calling an organization Police in Goverment Service.
Stephen Mann Wrote:more like Super Heroes In Training.... As supers, I guess things got really bad when your team was about to fly. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
-- ∇×V
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Did they ever have a really, really unpleasant follower that they really wanted to punch?
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Police should be the Force of Urban-Zone Zealots.
I thought I'd posted this on this forum before, but it doesn't show up on Search: a scout drone, the Artificial Intelligence for Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Tactical ReInforcement by Kinetic Effect (the last five words meaning if its human allies desperately need help in a fight, the unarmed drone can ram an enemy).
Oh, and last year on the thread dealing with Pottermore, we got into some Wizarding World spy-agency acronyms. Wizards Against Natural Disasters was one of the offerings. Just the other day, I discovered that also last year, Marvel revealed S.H.I.E.L.D. has a division called the Wizardry, Alchemy, and Necromancy Department, headed by Pandora Peters.
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Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
Stephen Mann
Unregistered
Quote:Bob Schroeck wrote:
Did they ever have a really, really unpleasant follower that they really wanted to punch?
Nope, though the press problem was because they had their own version of J. Jonah Jameson and never found a way to neutralize him. They eventually made a TV commercial playing on their bad luck as an ad for their detective business, though the campaign ended before we could see how successful their self-deprecating strategy was.
Quote from one of my Beta calls in SB:
"Hello and again welcome to the Manager Writing Computer-Assisted Improvement Center,” a computerized voice said, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. “We hope your brief detention in the waiting thread has been a pleasant one. Your account has been processed and we are now ready to begin the correcting proper. I am the Story Excellence, Redaction, and Verification Integrated Enrichment Laboratory, and will be your assistant for this Beta Request. You may call me SERaVIEL.”
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.
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