Like shortcuts? There’s a book for that.

Day 23!

Bib. info.:

Short cuts : the dictionary of useful abbreviations
Kleinedler, Steven Racek

Lincolnwood, Ill. : NTC Pub. Group, c1997, 1993.

**Insert ominous tone** Use at your own risk...And remember "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” --Beverly Sills

Sum:

This essential reference enables users to break through all the mysteries of abbreviated American English words and phrases. The guide concentrates on acronyms and initialisms found in common work and learning situations and covers 2,100 shortened words used in American English.

React:

Abbreviations annoy me.  Not in a don’t-be-lazy kind of way.  Laziness has it’s virtues–too many to extol here but suffice it to say that Snuggies, remote controls, and pre-made PB & J’s are involved.  No, they annoy me in a there-are-too-many-words-in-the-world-and-abbreviations-are-just-recipes-for-confusion kind of way.

Peep this.

A  sentence using abbreviation: Tom, you  get a comm dis.

Could be: Tom, you get a communicable disease. 

OR

Could be: Tom,  you get a community display.

Whats a community display? I don’t know. But I’m sure Tom would be happier to get it rather than what was behind door number 1 yes?

Viva la full-blown word!  Down with abbreviations!

Focusing on day 12 of the 30 day blogging challenge

A picture of the town you live in:

Rather than give an actual snapshot of my town, I’ll do my best to prosaically (if you will) paint a picture of it.  The little burg that I’m happy to call home (for the time being) is called College Park.  Why do I feel like I’m disclosing too much in blogland? Ah well. If they wanna getcha they can getcha.

Anyway, back to my pastoral life in College Park. I’ve heard it called the chocolate city within a chocolate city—we deep over here.  And yes there are instances that make you shake your head and go into your Bill Cosby tough love/slightly ‘sedity’ bag (that’s ‘bourgeoisie’ for the Boule and the un-Boule set), but mostly I see things that make me proud to belong to this community of hard scrabble survivors.  My neighbors are heaven-sent. The staff at my local grocery store is invariably kind and helpful.  There are little league teams with Coaches that mean well and really want to see the children thrive.  I feel comfortable around these folks. Yes there’s the occasional suspect apprehension in your neighborhood.  And yes,  there’s the occasional Walgreen’s robbery,  but for the most part I see a people determined to hold on to what they worked hard for and determined have their American dream their way—no matter what they say about it.