Antagonistic Toward Acronymns (Op-Ed by Thomas Antkow)
Spare the Romans, and Jesus. Blame it on the Greeks! Then the Germans.
by Thomas Antkow [Special to The Tennessee Conservative] –
I hate acronyms!
Most of us confuse the word acronym with anagram. Look it up. I had to.
After years of screwing up those two words I couldn’t believe how ignorant I must have sounded to the average academic chuckling under their breath as they wondered how I could have ever presented myself as a free-lance writer. Is there anyone out there who really likes acronyms?
Let’s not confuse acronyms with academia. I never cared for either one. If you do enjoy acronyms, you should be TFROOTOR (tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail)! Hold on. Frankly it took me more time to figure out how to take the first letter of each word. Repeat the phrase in my head. Repeat it again. Perform a spell check. Then JUST SAY THE DARNED THING out loud!
Now. I agree that using one or a few letters to ID an agency or group succinctly may seem to be the ultimate time saver. But c’mon, unless you are the one creating it and handing out the memo to define it, it is the most quintessential aggravating waste of time and effort. EVER!
By the time you get most acronyms committed to memory they are almost at the end of their intended life cycle anyway.
According to the Britannica and Wikipedia the term acronym was coined for use in the 1940’s. However, the word “akronym” was used by the Germans in the 1920’s. What about “BC” in the Gregorian calendar (Before Christ) or AD, (after death). Commonly translated from the Latin “Anno Domini” (year of our Lord), you say. I remember “INRI” in Catechism class on the template above Jesus’s head during the crucifixion. “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews”. But I digress. WWI, FDR, Nazi SS, JFK, CIA, FBI, OSS, IBM, NRA. The list goes on Ad Infinitum.
Now the one that started and will certainly hasten my demise regarding my rant about acronyms. LGBTQ+++! My guess amongst the in-crowd, being simply gay or queer just wasn’t enough! I always thought that God created pretty much only two genders. I guess that will label me as a GB. You figure this one out. Identifying as anyone or anything never really appealed to me. Is anyone else sick and tired of condensing every word and phrase into individual letters to create an alternate “secret code” for the rest of the English-speaking world to decipher? I know that I am. Here is a simple solution which may require some creativity and yes, brain power. Let’s condense every acronym into only two letters. Kind of Haiku for average American speak. You got to love them Japanese!
Let’s start with the dreaded LGBTQ+. What about a simple descriptive SD. Let me know if “sexually diverse” covers all the bases.
KISS principle, “keep it simple stupid”. Might feel good to be just SA. Simply American.
THOMAS ANTKOW is currently a freelance writer and produced and hosted his own daily radio show on KCSF AM 1300 and co-hosted talk shows for KVOR AM 740 for Cumulus Broadcasting in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at taradio863@gmail.com. You can subscribe to Tom’s FREE newsletter at: Antkow.substack.com
