My dad bought me a children's book when I was little called "C D B!" which was illustrated on the cover with two kids pointing at a flower-perched insect, as if to say, "See The Bee!" so that if children at least knew their ABC's, they could read this book. I suspect the origin of the text-message abbreviation "OIC" (for "Oh I see") came from this book, published in 1968. I recall a few pages, like "U R N D L-F-8-R" ("You are in the elevator") vividly, and periodically refer verbally to elevators to this day as "elefayter" for that reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDB
http://www.chrisdunmire.com/essays/2006/william-steig-cdb.shtml
It's a good thing I had the summary of the episode, as I thought Grant was saying "bodice" instead of "botus" =) I was like, "huh? A blackberry is a bodice? I don't get it."
I think it might have been better to clarify "yes or no" vote as "thumbs up or thumbs down" vote as relating specifically to "up or down".. Incidentally, my fifth grade social studies teacher would sometimes throw in false information to see how many of the students would get fooled by it. He once told us that in ancient times there used to be a thumbs-sideways vote in place of thumbs down, because to make a thumbs down to have to kind of lift your elbow up, so that there had only been thumbs-up and thumbs-sideways then. All of the kids from that year had been divided up into red, orange and green groups to denote which clusters of kids needed more help with their learning (and would move as a group from classroom to classroom, so no reds would be mixed with orange, etc), and to my knowledge he never threw out any of the falsities to any group than the green group, presumably the kids who needed the least help and could potentially figure out that it was false. I had just been moved mid-year from the orange group to the green group as a kind of promotion, and was fooled by the falsity, only years later to bring it up in conversation with a good friend of mine from green group, only to have him ask me, "You know he was kidding, right?"
They Might Be Giants has a song on their children's album, "Here Come the ABCs," titled "U R N X." The entire song consists of one-letter words. A sample:
I C U N U R O K - "I see you, and you are okay"
Re: milk toast. I spent the summer of '74 as a candystriper in our local hospital, and the disconnect between reality and the kitchen staff was a source of endless amazement. One patient ordered a "milk toast", and when the dumbwaiter came up there was a glass of cold milk and a plate of toast (with, if I remember right after all these years, a pat of butter on the side).
This is the same kitchen that once sent up "green beans, red bread and yellow Jell-O". That time, I think they were just pulling our leg.
"Call up to 24 hours in advance to make a reservation."
I certainly agree with all of you that there are much better ways to phrase this to remove any possible ambiguity.
And from a practical standpoint, it does not make sense (to me) to limit the reservation period to within 24 hours of the event. That would mean accepting reservations right up to the last minute (literally) - in which case, what's the point? Usually an event coordinator would want a final count 24 hours (or more) before the event.
When I hear about an "up" or "down" vote I think about the Roman leaders giving the thumbs up or down on a gladiator's life. Is it a possability this is playing in somewhere?