Seriously I was just filling out a log book and I wrote “Feb 02-15-2011”. COME ON Weer’d, that’s the notation equivalent of “ATM Machine”!
Also seems whenever I write the year I feel obligated to write the full year. I don’t ever remember writing out “1999” except when it was necessary, but now that the century is turned, I somehow feel compelled to write the century down. I wonder if the people living at the turn of the 20th Century felt the same way. Seems whenever people are talking about the first few decades of the 20th they seem to feel obligated to state the century. The gun I carry is the “Nineteen-Eleven”, and it was introduced into US Military service in “Nineteen-Eleven”, not “Eleven”.
At least I say “Twenty-Eleven” when I give the date, rather than a few years ago when I said “Two-Thousand and nine”.
And in closing I’ll say another stupid redundancy that I hear all the time. “Can you give me your PIN number?”
We live in a world of Acronyms, which is well and good, but it seems a huge chunk of us don’t know what these Acronyms actually STAND for.
Got any others that tweak ya?
I have to write dates as per ISO 8601.
MILF = Manual Inline Lift Fluctuator
There was actually a guy in FL a few years back with a singled Supra who had “GOTMILF” on his license plate. The above was how he explained MILF and got it approved.
In the book industry, saying “ISBN number” is so universal I find myself slipping into it.
I think the habit of using a four digit year was beaten into me by the Y2K issues, as well as the fact that I was taking a COBOL class at the time.
Yeah, I was noting for the last few years all checks have been printed without the century numbers, so when stroking a check you need to write the full year too.
Here at work we have what we call the MPR room.
MPR stands for multi-purpose room.
Not an acronym but I’m breaking myself of the habit of referring to the “hot Water heater”.
One that I have cringed at — hearing people discussing cars and asking for their VIN number — hmm Vehicle Identification Number Number?
Yep I’ve said “hot water heater” too sometimes.
That’s sort of excusable. It’s the heater that makes the hot water hot. As opposed to STEAM heater next to it in my basement. (Which annoys me by having a pressure gauge on it – and having an operating pressure that won’t move the needle. So I don’t know if the gauge is functional at any particular time)
Well a steam heater heats via steam, just like a steam locomotive locomotes via steam.
The device beside it is a WATER heater, as it heats water, making cold water from the pipes into hot water for my showah.
The English language is confusitating!
I believe,, from the above accounts, when acronyms turn into actual words, spoken in usage, like “Is-been” or “Peen”, “Vien” (depends on the local accent) they lose a major component of their compressed “acronymity.” The number-component is transformed, and that has to be replaced by adding (ore repeating) in the lost element – the number part is the first to go since words have more meaning(-fullness) than numbers, and it gets repeated as a reminder. Just an idea from the behavioral side. Over time consonants shift too – wonder how that works with acronyms?
PCV valve drives me bananas.
Positive Crankcase Ventilation Valve. Yes it appears to be a PCV valve 🙂
My mistake, not what I thought it meant.
Dude.. I think you FAT table is hosed.