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APPENDIX 01: Acronyms and Emoticons

Area: Netmail Area
Date : Nov 06 '96, 17:02 Pvt Rvd
From : Stu Turk 1:129/26.2
To: Michael Nellis 1:240/99.58
Subj : Acronyms /IV
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* Reply to a message in WRITING.

You know, most of that Acronym list looks like it is from Kay Shapero's (Stormgate Aerie 1:102/524) that she posts in SF every few months. If so, maybe you ought to give her a credit line? :-)
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ACRONYMS (and things that look like them):

AAMOF: As A Matter Of Fact

ACLU: Association of Creepy Lawyers and Utopians

ACRONYM: Abbreviated Coded Rendition Of Name Yielding Meaning

ADIDAS: All Day I Dream About Sex

AIMB: As I Mentioned Before (credited to Travis Butler)

AFOG: Another Freaking Opportunity for Growth
-attrib Sharon Skelly

APA: Amateur Press Association. Sort of like this bulletin board only each member prints up his/her own comments and passes them to the Official Collator (or Official Editor) to fasten together and distribute copies to members. Most appear monthly or quarterly, but there is at least one yearly one (WOOF - the Worldcon apa) and a weekly (gisp) one, APA-L, collated and distributed at LASFS meetings.

ARMPITT: A Royal, Major, Pain In The Tush
-Pat Dewey, 09 Nov 96

ASB: Anglo-Saxon Basic; a euphemism for earthy language

ATST: At The Same Time (credited to John Kahane)

BAA: Born-Again-Apathetic, or as we refer to ourselves, "BAA, who cares..."
-Deadeye

BATF: Burn All Toddlers First

BLORF: The sound generated by a very large number of EchoMessages arriving in a very short period of time.

BMW: A Montreal transportation expression meaning Bus, Metro, Walk: i.e., "Yeah, I travel BMW."

BOCICBW: But, of course, I could be wrong.

BOGGIES: S-F fandom slang for kids.

BOIG: Big Ol' Innocent Grin
-Dalton Kidd

BOOF: A typo for "book" which appears to have caught on. It means "book". It has been suggested that "bif" is the plural of "boof", possibly rotten "bif" are "barf", "bif in a series are "biffies" and so on. Really LARGE bif may be called "beef".

BTTDB: back to the drawing board

BTW: By The Way

BTWN: Between

CBIP: Current Book In Progress; used by readers to refer to a book currently being read [see TITLE, etc].

DINC: A "Dual Income, No Children" yuppie.

DUOE: Dried-Up Old Eunuch. To quote Jo Peshek "An organization of folks who have thoughts about things other than sex. We do occasionally think about sex, but it isn't an exclusive subject in our lives. In other words, we have brains as well as hormones."

DVOTWAHTRPOYH: dangerous-vacations-of-the-world-and-how-to-really-piss-off-your-hosts tour.
-(name attrib: Sue Squires; acronym attrib: Bob Bonomi, see VACATIONS)

FASA: A game company that made a Star Trek role playing game, before Paramount (or someone) decided it was a mistake and pulled the rights. AKA F**A by someone who agrees with Paramount. I've never seen it, myself, so couldn't say.

FAT-ASS: Federal Air Transportation Airport Security Service
--Karen Rhodes, 03 Feb 2004

FBT: Frigging Blue Turtleoid. Refers to the gigantic blue six legged turtle like critter with several people tied to its back which appears on the cover of John DeChancie's novel Castle Kidnapped. It does not appear anywhere inside the book.

FEBA: Forward Edge of the Battle Area. It's what the army calls the lines drawn on a map depicting our side and their side. The red line is always used to mark the other side's position, the blue line is always used to mark friendly positions, regardless of which side draws the map.

FIAWOL: Fandom Is A Way Of Life

FIJAGH: Fandom Is Just A Ghoddam Hobby (or possibly "Ghu-dam hobby" if you're into invoking fannish ghods [personally I like The Great Spider or The Church of Herbangelism --"Praise Herbie and Pass the Buck"], note also the fannish insertion of silent "h"s into things, such as "bheer".)

FILK: Is not an acronym. It started out life as a typo of "fannish folk songs" and was adopted by the perpetrators of same. So Filksongs are fannish folksongs.

FITB: Fill In The Blank....

FORD: (as pertains to writing) Fix Or Revise Daily

FORD: (Alternatively [about Ford motor vehicles]) Fix or Repair Daily Found On Roadside Dead (in French) Fabrication Ordinaire, Reparations Divers (Ordinary [standard] manufacture, Diverse Repairs])

FORD: (Alternatively) Ford: Off Road and Dangerous (The "Ford" in this case refers to Eric Ford, (see Pseudo-Neo-War-of-1812). This expression was coined after a particularly unsuccessful road trip by Eric Ford in which he was involved in no less than three motor vehicle accidents. Two of them with rented vehicles because the first one so damaged his personal vehicle as to render it no longer road worthy without repairs. [There were no injuries in any of the accidents.] This usuage of the acronym was coined by Michael Nellis. It can used to describe any particularly unlucky or inept driver who creates highway mayhem while just managing to avoid total destruction.)

FUBS: Fido Used-Book Squad. The folks most likely to be able to help when you can't found that nifty sounding boof

FYI: For Your Information

FYOL: Fixed Your Origin Line (A game, where you twist the meaning of someone's tagline or origin line by changing as few characters as possible, show the changes by putting carets below the altered characters, then crow "FYOL!" on the next line.

GAFIATE: Get Away From It All (as in drop out of Fandom)

HIDD: Hardware Installation Deficit Disorder (see entry in encylopdia; also: TWIT, THEORY OF:) Coined by Carl Thames.

JAFO: Just Another F___ing Observer

JASA: Just Another Stupid Acronym

ICOCBW: I Could, Of Course, Be Wrong

IHAS: I Hate Acronyms Society
-Contributed by Dave Hallford

IIRC: If I Remember Correctly. "The obligatory statement of modesty before making a sweeping generalization about something read five years ago." (credited to Travis Butler)

IMHO: In My Humble Opinion. Sometimes In My Honest Opinion. Also IMNSHO: In My Not-So Humble Opinion and IMOBO: In My Own Biased Opinion.

INPO: In No Particular Order

IOTTMCO: Intuitively Obvious to the Most Casual Observer (Passed along in Cliff Stohl's autobiographical book The Cuckoo's Egg . I forget who he attributes it to...)

ISIICFI: I'll See If I Can Find It (issee-ick-fee) -by demand of Pat Dewey.

LASFS: The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, which is the oldest continuously meeting science fantasy society in this world. Founded on October 27th, 1934, it settled on weekly Thursday meetings by the end of 1939, and has an unbroken record ever since, including Thanksgivings. It can currently be found at: 11513 Burbank Blvd., N. Hollywood, CA 91601 telephone (818) 760-9234.

MHIIO: My humble, if inflammatory opinion.
-Vern Faulkner, 30 Dec 1997

MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over (see GLAZING,appendix 05)

NIMBY: Not In My BackYard

NIMITZ: No Immediate Miracles In This Zoo

OOK!: This is not an acronym, and signifies delighted approval.

OOP: Out Of Print

OOTC: Obligatory On Topic Comment

OOTQ: Obligatory On Topic Quote

OWEPA: Official Writing Echo Publications Archivist

PJF: Pre Joycean Fellowship. Steven Brust, Pamela Dean, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Jane Yolen, and Neil Gaiman and various others who consider that James Joyce did the literary world a disservice by deemphasizing plot. To quote Pamela;

"We're a bunch of writers who worry about the divorce of so-called popular and so-called literary values, and hope to reconcile them. Some of us don't really blame Joyce for the breakup, and some of us do."

PWM: Protesting While Muslim --attrib. Steve Weissman

OUFFIE: Old Urban Failure
-[attrib] Sharon Carrigan

PETA: People for the Eating of Tasty Animals.

POV: Point Of View

PTOOIE: How the terminally frustrated prounounce "Ptavvs", as in Larry Niven's World Of Ptavvs.

PWTSLNAARGA: People With The Same Last Name As A Really Good Author

RAH: Robert A. Heinlein

ROFLASTC! (or ROFLASC!): Rolling On The Floor Laughing And Scaring The Cat. Originated, I'm told by Pamela Dean, who types with a cat on her lap. Variants include ROFL!, ROTFLH and SITCLH("ROFL Hysterically", and "~ Sitting in the chair LH").

ROTBA: Reality On The Blink Again (scientific inaccuracy or just plain nonsense)

RSN: Real Soon Now

RTFM: Read The Fershlugginer Manual

SFBC: Science Fiction Book Club

SFWA: Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Sometimes abbreviated SFFWA. Pronounced "sif-wa".

SIASL: Stranger In A Strange Land

SITCOMs: What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids. Stands for "Single Income, Two Children, And Oppressive Mortgage." (see DINC)

SMOF: Secret Masters of Fandom

ST:TOS, ST:TNG, ST:TAS, ST:TMP, ST:DSN, and ST:VGR: Respectively: Star Trek:

SWINW: She Who Is Never Wrong.

SWMBO: She Who Must Be Obeyed.

TANJ: There Ain't No Justice
-Larry Niven, first used in Ringworld

TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (RAH, first used in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress)

TBOTSBO: (Tuh-Bots-Bow) The Book Of The Screamingly Bloody Obvious
-Title coined by Bill Wren; 07-05-96
-Acronym coined by David Jacklin; 13-05-96 [see BOOKS:]

TEOTWAWKI: The End of the World As We Know It

THUG LIFE: The Hate You Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone (from a Tupak Shakur tattoo)

TIDMADT: These Initials Don't Mean A Damn Thing

TITLE, NUMBER/BIGGER NUMBER: Not an acronym, but a method of indicating where you are in a book. Write the title first, followed by a parenthesis, followed by the page number you are on, followed by the total number of pages in the book. For example, if you were on page 12 of Mort, it would be MORT, 12/285. Who came up with this is unclear.
[Often preceded by "CBIP" -MN]

TPTB: The Powers That Be

TRQ: To Read Queue. Also VTRQ "Virtual To Read Queue".

TSTMATS: The Sun, The Moon and the Stars by Stephen Brust. Good book.

TTFN: Ta Ta For Now.

TTYL: Type (or Talk) To You Later

UBS: Used Book Store

URL: Undecypherable Recognition Launchers

UTME: Up To My Eyeballs
-[attrib] Sharon Carrigan

WIL: Work In Limbo
-coined by Cheri Woodruff in a message to Phil McCloud, 29 Aug 96: I haven't even looked at my WIP lately. I guess that means I'll have to change the abbreviation to WIL (work in limbo).

WINDOWS: Warning: Insidious Neo-DOS for Overthrowing World's Suckers
-coined by Fang-Face DreamWeaver, 22 Oct 1997

WIP: Work In Progress; used by authors to refer casually to whatever they are working on at the moment.

WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction? No, not them. I'm talking about White Male Defectors, voters who four years ago responded favorably to Bush's no-nonsense, common man veneer, but now find themselves alienated by his increasingly expansive religious agenda and his assaults on the Bill of Rights.
--Laurie Spivak, Culture War May Find WMD, 10 Mar 2004

WYLABOCTGWTR, WYLASOMWTC: Would You Like A Bowl Of Cream To Go With That Remark?, Would You Like A Saucer Of Milk With That Comment? Created by Steven Brust (& common in Minneapa)

YATI: Yet Another Trek Inconsistency

YUFFIE: Young Urban Failure
-[attrib] Sharon Carrigan

YMMV: Your mileage may vary.

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(The following list of acronyms was originally compiled by Rachel Veraa and has subsequently been edited to include other acronyms.)

ACRONYMS FOR ARMED SERVICES:

ACRONYMS FOR PAPER DOCTORS:

EMOTICONS:

Usually an ASCII graphic of a smiley face on its side, tilted toward the left. Sometimes a word written in angle brackets. Some examples are:

ASSICONS:

. . . And finally: 

 
   ..oo*"""**oo.oo*""*oo.. 
   oo*"           "*o.o*"        "*o. 
   .o"                   'o"                 "o 
   o                      o                    *o 
   o                       o                       'o 
   o                         o                        o. 
   o                          o                         o 
   o                          \o/                       o 
   o                         --0--                       o 
   o.                         /o\                        o 
   o                           o                         o 
   o                           o                          o 
   o                           o                       oo 
   oo                         o                       oo 
   oo.                       oo                    oo 
   'ooo.                  .oo.                 ooo 
   ""oo,,        ,,oO-'Oo,       ,,,,,oo"o 
   'o                     oo                     o' 
   o                     oo                    o 
   'o                     o                    o* 
   o                     o                   o 
   o                     o                  o 
   o                    o                 o 
   o                    o                 o 
   o                    o                 o 
   o                    o                 o

You have just been e-mooned!

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