As a "newbie", I have decided to coin a new "nomie" (nomenclature) on here and that is "LAFF" - it doesn't stand for anything more than what it communicates. When I used the LOL in my communications with my Friend in Wales (of the "Hell" fame article), he queried just as all of us have at one time or another, probably; what is LOL ? Such abbreviates do tend to make us wonder when it doesn't translate into meaningful sense, and then when we first hear of the translation, many of us think, what "corn" ( Please see Dictionary of Slang at local Library) ! I know I have said this before, but I will repeat ( like a "broken record" or a "warped groove") that in Ham Radio, using telegraphy we expressed laughter by sending "Hi Hi!" plus all the other expressions such as "lid" meaning poor operator, or poor telegraphy. All these expressions were extremely "corny" when 1st heard but in time they become a part of the "slanguage" that we take for granted, and "newbies" or outsiders can't make sense of it. Instead of saying, "Our Name is. . ." we learned in those earlier days of ham radio to say, "Our Handle is . . . " - even the "Our" part was corny because the our was referring to only one person, the operator, not plural! This expression eventually sifted down to the inception of "CB" and "CBers" or the Citizen Band operators which NOT AT ALL the same as Ham Radio operators. So, it goes - Boeing Co. has its nomenclature full of abbraviations, NO END! and if you move from one AREA of your job there, you must learn a whole new meaning of the nomenclature, and abbreviates for that area. Even tho' the letters may look exactly the same, but they take on a whole different translation in the other area. AOG = Airplane On Ground (crashed, stalled, non-moving, etc.) is a common one. BCAP - might translate to Boeing Commercial Airplane Part, or it might have a different meaning depending on what area or kind of work one does. On my Tuttle gen. on my rootsweb surname site, I just ran into "TAG" used in some communications. I wondered what that meant - Tuttle Annotated Genealogy or what? Then, I saw where others wondered the same thing - what does TAG stand for. Well, I am sure that many of you are quite familiar with that one, but we "Newbies", "slow learners", "environmentally impaired" etc. were to "learn" that TAG = The American Genealogist, "obviously"! So, let us all have a big "LAFF" over the whole thing - including our news coverage, via the "rags" and via the "BOOB TOOB" ! I liked this issue of PSRoots Digest mode (for me) that I printed all 12 pp. (but, I put p 12 back into the Printer "crib" ( My Scotch ancestry frequently "takes over"!) as it was so interesting. All the various (and "tongue in cheek" ) retorts as to the meaning of LOL. And one enterprising "soul" with my sense of humour (sic.) contributed the "ROFALMAO" (Ref. Msg #11, NOT LISTED among my Treehistn Friend's List) of Tattered and Dusty Manuscripts of Cyberspace slanguage used for "Rapid Transit" of communications by those who are savvy, and not "newbies" like some of us still are. With that I shall QRT or Stop Sending in order to type a couple of articles that might be of interest to some. Carroll. * * * 30 * * * ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]