Is A Part Of
I should have realized that “Snakes on a Plane” would bomb when I realized its initials spelled out the acronym S.O.A.P. And there was a reason the War in Iraq was code-named Operation Iraqi Freedom and not Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.). Would you shop at Cut Rate Auto Parts or join the Canadian Reform Alliance Party knowing they share the acronym C.R.A.P.? And would you really feel safe in a Deep Underground Military Base (D.U.M.B.)? Or respect the Law of the Sea Treaty (L.O.S.T.)? Or be employed by the Center for Research in Mathematics Education (C.R.I.M.E.)? Or hop a South Coast Area Transit bus (S.C.A.T.)? And is the Daughter of a Righteous King a Princess or just a D.O.R.K.? I may have played an instrument, but I never would’ve willingly joined the Northwestern University Marching Band (N.U.M.B.) or the Duke University Marching Band (D.U.M.B.). And I remember well the adolescent giggles when the band Van Halen titled an album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”. Did you ever watch on TV an After School Special (A.S.S.)? Does your city have a Municipal Utility District (M.U.D.)?
So the news was discouraging that retired boxing super-champ Muhammad Ali is going to be marketing a line of snack foods called “Greatest Of All Time: G.O.A.T.” And neither Ali or the Mars candy company has a problem with actually promoting it by that acronym?
I’m not even going to start to get into acronyms that look like misspelled words. After all, I am a resident of San Luis Obispo (S.L.O.), where the bus service is called SLO Transit (They’d be better off calling them SLOT Cars) and a major thoroughfare going out of town is the Los Osos Valley Road (L.O.V.R.), making anybody living on that street a SLO LOVR. At least they don’t call the local Parks Department S.L.O.P. And I’m glad there aren’t a San Luis Obispo United Childrens Hospital (S.L.O.U.C.H.) or a San Luis Obispo Businessmen’s Society (S.L.O.B.S.) or San Luis Obispo Tour Hosts (S.L.O.T.H.).
That’s all for now from San Luis Obispo Wendell.
