abcdefg, hijklmnop — qrstuv, wxy and z Won’t they be so proud of me, when I learn my ABCs!
I know that air pollution, ecology, and over-population are among our biggest worries today, but dear hearts, long before we do away with ourselves in a cloud of smog, I fear we may all drown in a very large bowl of ALPHABET SOUP.
Have you noticed lately in the newspapers and magazines how more and more we have come to use two and three letter abbreviations for the ever-growing number of organizations in society today? The trend is toward “think small”. We have the small car, microfilm, mini-bikes, transistor radios, car T.V.s, compressed garbage and the ABCs and very important!
Just for fun, here is a list of fifty of the most frequently used abbreviations. Now, let’s play a little game — first read the list, then go back and see how many you can honestly identify by their whole name and score one point for each one you know. If you score between 40 and 50 points, put a gold star on your forehead. If you score between 25 and 40, you rate a green star.. Anything less than a score of 25 means you’re only understanding about half of what you read — for this a crash-course in ALPHABET is heartily recommended!
Are you ready? Get set — GO: AA, AAA, AMA, AT&T, AFL, ATC, AMB, BBB, CORE, CAB, CAA, CIA, EPA, FHA, FTD, FBI, GMT, HUD, HEW, IATA, IBM, JDL, KKK, MIRV, NATO, NBA, NFL, NLRB, NBC, NORAD, NAACP, PTA, POW, SDS, SALT, TVA, TAPS, TWA, UN, UFO, USO, UAW, UNICEF, VA, VISTA, YMCA, and XYZ. (Actually, XYZ is a “ringer” and unless you have a child in the house, you’ll never figure this out.)
All this goes to prove we really never finish learning our ABCs. It just goes on and on an on and on and on and
Originally published in The Paper, April 1971.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1971_04.pdf, printed page 5.
