Okay, explanation time.

They still do (or did in the later 1980s). Two merchant ships passed each other, one captain asked the other how the food was since the cook had changed and got a biblical reference back which ammused him greatly- When I found it it said something like 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and every day' but I cannot for the life of me remeber the reference itself.

Mike

In message , snipped-for-privacy@notigg.not.no writes

That's a bit more civil than the usual phrase "Who called the cook a c**t?....Who called the c**t a cook?" The ex MN chaps out there will know what I mean! LOL

Getting back to a railway related theme

I remember many years ago passing through Rugby station on a Euston Bound train and saw 2 posters on a waiting room wall, one above the other. the top one said the quote above and the lower poster advertised an Audi car with the words 'Racy But Spacey'

Made me laugh anyway.

And my entry is PBKC (problem between keyboard and chair)

Jesus Roy! Take a valium. Abbreviations are always used and I refuse to believe you have never used "i.e." "e.g." etc.

IIRC (among others) is a nice way to get a reply down and is accepted in net use - which like any specific generates it's own shorthand. I don't ever want to see you refer to DCC, DC or even AC in a post to illustrate your lack of ostentaciousness

"peter abraham" wrote

And "Hstvee8" wrote:

This sparks a memory. I wore a blue suit for a number of years and once upon a time I was Tor Commander for a Ten Tors Race.

In those days I was with the Fleet Air Arm and I and a couple of my fellow engineers "went ashore" for a few beers in Okehampton on the Thursday before the race.

The briefing before deployment on the Friday morning was an interesting experience. I was handed the Tor Commander's OPORD (that's operation order IIRC) and invited to read it. The B thing was written in a sort of short hand that invades army orders from time to time. Try as I might I could not get my mind round it; it was a lot worse than any of the short hand we see here because it was entire pages of acronyms, abbreviations and words without vowels. In the end I have this vague memory of throwing it at a junior subby (sub lieutenant) who was going to be my 2IC (2nd in command) for the weekend with the words "tell me if there is anything I need to know about, I'm going to do a spot check on the helo maint (helicopter maintenance) records, at least I'll be able to understand them"...

Tee Hee.

So why aren't you doing just that? Keith

Now that is just slack. Maybe a BBC cutback ;-) ? Saving air time, lol.

One thing I really detest is (in Aussie anyway)the car ads that are pronounced as eleven, nine, ninety etc... ahhhh. It is Eleven thousand, Nine hundred and Ninety dollars. Rant over.

Mark

The number of young people who use Goodbye instead of the full May God be with you, mutter, mutter . . . .

Mike

Is it not May your God ....

Simon

RHIP

(kim)

wrote

I've got to say I don't like abbreviations, if only because it makes life difficult for internet newbies. Now there, see, I've used 'newbies' which I suspect is an abbreviation.

John.

"simon" wrote

Thought your name was 'Simon', nott Dave Allen.

John.

I watched a movie about the evacuation of Dunkirk many years ago. The soldiers in it kept referring to faulty pieces of equipment as being "U/S". I asked an former British Army RSM of 22 years standing and who was at Dunkirk in 1940 what it meant? He said he didn't know. He thought it might mean "unservicable" but he wasn't sure. Personally I think it mean't "up the spout" but that's just a guess.

Then there was the busybody from the local health authority (LHA) who insisted I couldn't possibly be a MOD psychiatrist as I didn't have an ASW. (Anti Submarine Warfare anyone?). Apparently it means "assigned social worker". (Anyone who's ever worked for the MOD can point out the tiny flaw in that argument). Not long afterwards I sat in on a committee meeting of social workers from her very own LHA and not one them ever used the term ASW during the entire discussion.

It just demonstrates the danger of assuming everyone knows what a particular acronym stands for in any perticular situation.

(kim)

You could try a dictionary:

US abbr.

1 United States (of America). 2 (Brit.) Under-Secretary. 3 (Brit.) unserviceable.

Martin.

All three are basically the same =8^)

Here in NZ one furniture shop has TV ads with prices that are pronounced Eleven ninety-nine and the like. When I need a new couch I'm going to write them a cheque!

Greg.P.

They've been doing it for donkey's years by announcing "This is the BBC."

But are they any good? I know a few furniture places in Rotorua.........

Mark

Cost cutting from the word go. ROTFLMAO. Always with the obvious:-)

Mark