2002-11-19

If you want to know the truth....

The other day I was perusing a message board (we won't say which one, to protect the guilty) and came across a sentence similar to this:

"Nikki Sixx is not the person to ask about pasteurization, IYWTKTT"

Side Note: Paula and I often substitute the names of M�tley Cr�e members when talking about someone whose identity we don't want to reveal. You should try it. �S'fun.

Anyway, yeah - I had to go back and re-read that a couple of times before I figured out what the fuck it was: an acronym for "if you want to know the truth."

Chickens. Chickens, chickens, chickens. It was all I could to do to not leap across the dial-ups and T1s to throttle the person who posted that message.

I'm going to put it out there and expect the invariable howls of "GET OVER IT!" but I cannot be quiet about this sort of thing any longer: what is so difficult about spelling something out?

Okay, far be it from me to make such a sweeping condemnation, having occasionally tapped out "WTF?" in some of my online dealings. But by and large, this sort of shit makes me insane. I mean, it's not cute, it's not clever, and in an extreme example such as the one above, I can't imagine it saves any time. It's just stupid. I don't get it.

For example � and here I'll quite possibly alienate tons of people � the whole "LOL" subset of online acronyms:

lisamcc: "Vince Neil has all the personality of a wet sponge."

mickmars: "LOL!"

I think maybe the problem I have with something like this stems from my own inherently competitive nature. I'm all about being the funniest girl in the room, virtual or otherwise, so then I get to thinking: "Hmm. How can I get him to type, say, ROTFL?"

lisamcc: "Tommy Lee has an enormous schlong, don't you agree?"

mickmars: "ROTFL!"

lisamcc: "Really? Rolling on the floor laughing? But....you're still typing! How can this be?"

But, let's face it � I'm a snob. There are some days where I think we should all go back to writing with quills and doing that bit where every other "s" looks like a lower-case "f."

Anyways � l8rs! LOL! ;-)

lisamcc at 1:46 p.m.

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