Patricia in San Diego wonders why POTUS, FLOTUS, and SCOTUS suddenly seem everywhere. SCOTUS appears in an 1879 Phillips Code manual for telegraph operators, while POTUS grew naturally from POT, President of the, plus U.S. It is found in print by...
A San Antonio, Texas, middle-schooler has observed that when she and her friends are texting, they use different spellings to indicate agreement. Her friend types OK, but the caller prefers okay. Either is correct. For an engaging, thorough history...
Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski went through his day planner to combine activities with the abbreviations of days and months. For example, when it’s a relief after a long week just to get in bed, you’re talking about Satin. This is part of a...
Charlotte in Alexandria, Virginia, has noticed a bit of National Park Service shorthand in Washington, D.C.: some attractions shrink to the first two letters of each word. Ford’s Theater becomes FOTH, Peterson House across the street is PEHO, and...
Are your nightstand books all over the place? Why not stack ’em into a bookmash? A bookmash is a kind of found poetry formed from book titles! And we all know that honesty is the best policy. But does that mean you should correct the grammar of your...
Do you say terms like NBD, LOL, or BRB aloud in everyday speech? It sounds strange to hear spoken text lingo, but with all language, it’s only weird until it becomes the norm, and then we wonder how we did without it. That said, most of these...