<div dir="ltr">Three Mile Island, of course.<br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 9:23 AM Barry MacKichan <<a href="mailto:barry.mackichan@mackichan.com">barry.mackichan@mackichan.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div>
<div style="font-family:sans-serif"><div style="white-space:normal"><p dir="auto">TMI</p>
<p dir="auto">On 25 Jan 2021, at 18:43, Steve Smith wrote:</p>
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<blockquote style="border-left:2px solid rgb(119,119,119);color:rgb(119,119,119);margin:0px 0px 5px;padding-left:5px"><div id="gmail-m_-87391584278160547780A43FAC2-5F44-44F1-9468-EC9123EB8238">
<p>Nick -</p>
<p>I think it *can* be the thing you call out, but I encounter it in
so many contexts where that explanation doesn't really fit.
Sometimes I think it is entirely unconscious shortcutting. On
this list, for example, I use LANL (Los Alamos National
Laboratory) because I believe that *all* Santa Fe/NM folks know
what it is an acronym for and *many* non SFe (Santa Fe) NM (New
Mexico) folks know it *by now*. Similarly I find SFI an
acceptable contraction in this context. <br>
</p>
<p>On the technical side, the shortcut/contraction/acronym is often
the primary/preferred reference. Even if you might not *know*
that DNA is <i>deoxyribonucleic acid</i> or ATP is <i>adenosine
triphosphate</i>... or that the YMCA is the <i>young men's
christian association</i>, for example, you know the signified
by that signifier, and in fact you *won't* know what those
contractions are *for* unless you are in fact using them in some
insider/technical sense.</p>
<p>I know people who work within a large but somewhat insular
community whose acronyms are myriad and they are truly NOT trying
to be exclusionary. I have a number of friends who are either
social workers or have studied in the field or have
friends/families with mental illness so I hear the acronym DSM and
I can tell it is being used in a very "insider" way. I know
little of the details, but I've gathered that "DSM II" somehow
connotes both "modern" and "not-really-modern" psychiatric models,
but I think even if I do the GoogleFu to learn the first level of
details, I would not be much less puzzled by knowing, for example:</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 id="gmail-m_-8739158427816054778mntl-sc-block_1-0-10"><span style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px none;font-size:24px;font-weight:400;vertical-align:baseline;background:rgba(0,0,0,0) none repeat scroll 0px 0px">DSM-I and DSM-II</span></h3>
<p id="gmail-m_-8739158427816054778mntl-sc-block_1-0-11">In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association (APA)
published the DSM-I, an adaptation of a classification system
developed by the armed forces during WW2. It was designed for
use by doctors and other treatment providers.</p>
<p id="gmail-m_-8739158427816054778mntl-sc-block_1-0-13">The DSM-I was the first of its kind, but experts
agreed that it still needed work. The DSM-II, released in 1968,
attempted to incorporate the psychiatric knowledge of the day.
It was heavily influenced by psychoanalytic concepts that were
prominent at that time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think that both Glen and maybe Frank have tossed DSM or even
DSM II into the conversation here without any more explication
than I get at cocktail parties and it lands just as dead for me,
but not offensive here as there (until I get my GoogleGoggles
flashing Wikipedia/Wiktionary in my peripheral vision with
automatic explication). It even seems like a good feature for
Alexa/Siri/HeyGoogle to listen continuously and recognize acronyms
and offer ordered-by-likelihood-from-context explications in your
ear (or in the room if you want to shame the acronymster
acrimoniously).<br>
</p>
<p>I understand that many are "lazy typists" who find it patently
painful (emotionally if not physically) to type anything out.
And *too many people* (IMO ... in my opinion) do too much of their
correspondence on a TS (tiny screen) which requires them to
hunt-peck with one finger (maybe two thumbs) without touch
feedback and without the benefit of QWERTY knowledge built into
their Neural Net neurons.</p>
<p>I'm assuming Frank's OP (original post) was in response to both
some specific TLA (three letter acronym) used recently or the
accrued irritation of having to look up jargon ( especially TLAs
and MLAs (multi letter acronyms)) just to figure out a
conversation he is *otherwise* informed enough on to follow. Or
both. Or maybe he's just taking out his frustration with his
daughter here where it's "safe" <grin>.<br>
</p>
<p>BTW (by the way) and FWIW (for what it's worth) I think I'd be
game for one of Glen's experiments, even if the constraints
offered somehow cramped *my* style (e.g. 20 line limit on posts,
no markup-like formatting like *bold* or EMPHASIS or _underscore_
HTML (even formatting like <b>bold</b> or <i>italics</i>). or
even his extremal suggestion of requiring "peer review" by 3
others before submitting (I'd probably become rather mute over
that one) WTFOMFGROFLMAOGMWAS!<br>
</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p></div></blockquote>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Frank Wimberly<br>140 Calle Ojo Feliz<br>Santa Fe, NM 87505<br>505 670-9918<div><br></div><div>Research: <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2" target="_blank">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2</a></div></div></div>