Okay, explanation time.

In message , Elliott Cowton writes

You mean only disreputable matelot types....

Remember, there are two Navy's, the Royal Navy and the Real Navy.

To differentiate their vessels at sea, Royal Navy ships are grey and come out to play when the sky isn't. Real Navy ships are more colourful looking and far too busy to play silly games..

LOL

You recognised it - one of the best he was. Simon

Hebrews 13.8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

If people object to the use of abreviations, I hope no-one is modelling the pre-name shortening Hull & Barnsley Railway...

Or even the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead?

As the porter told the old lady at Weston Super Mare: "Cross the platform and get on the WC&P".

How about the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Electricity and Tramways Board?

LOL let me see if I can remember it all:

Hull, Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway & Dock Company Ltd or something similar.

I actually own a for H&BR wooden table which has the unabbreviated initials emblazoned on the underside, and the LNER clock in my shop is of H&BR origin with the original letter visible using an ultraviolet let.

John.

They do the same with gasoline here (US) as well $X.199 with the last "9" displayed in the manner of a superscript or similar to an exponent.

For many years before Wal-Mart, K-Mart did the same. A thing was priced as $17.88 instead of an even $18.00, or even $17.99.

" Les Pickstock" wrote To be slightly pedantic the above are not acronyms but abbreviations. An acronym ( or an initialism) is an abbreviation that forms a pronouncible word, good examples would be Radar, Laser etc.

OK Les, I know that RADAR is "RAdio Detection And Range" but what is LASER an acronym of ? (Light And Sound Emitting Radiation?)

Andy

"Greg Procter" wrote

Here in NZ one furniture shop has TV ads with prices that are pronounced Eleven ninety-nine and the like.

Greg.P.

That would be $11.99 then ? Not the intended $1199.00

I would take that up with trading standards for a laugh and see if you could get one on the cheep!

Andy

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

MBQ

_L_ight _A_mplification by _S_timulated _E_mission of _R_adiation

It's a variation on the older MASER, which stood for _Microwave_ (radio) _A_mplification by _Stimulated_ E_mission of _Radiation_

HTH..

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

MBQ

To MBQ & ARB ! Thanks. I didn't know that. I'll be on info overload for the rest of the day now !

:-)

Andy

They tried that in the UK but a court ruled it was illegal. You needed a pair of binoculars to spot the final "9" on the price board. As petrol is sold by the litre here you had to pay many more multiples of .999 than you would if it was sold by the gallon.

(kim)

"James Christie" wrote

Guilty as charged M'Laud.

In my defence I would like to state that I IS an engineer (properly written as (E)(IS)). At no time have I been a member of the group my fellow engineers refer to as the Master Race and whilst a humble officer under training there is a record that I said something vile about being asked to paint the ship the said grey colour.

Of course allowing for the US gallon being smaller than our 'Imperial' gallon.

Alan

..........and the American "short ton" which - if I recall correctly and stand ready to be corrected - is only 2000 lbs as against the "Imperial" ton of 2240 lbs.

David Costigan

Some extremely contorted examples exist. e.g. the acronym SNARE made out of "Soluble N-ethyl maleimide-sensitive factor Attachment protein REceptor" !

In message , Duncan writes

Getting back to this question, that I know was posted some time ago, I'd rather use an acronym like SNARE than have to type "Soluble N-ethyl maleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor" all the time.