About ten years ago I worked as a sort of groundskeeper at a condo complex. My boss was this hard-boiled ex-cop. He was a really good guy, and we got along great. One thing I remember about him was the unusual brand of cigarettes he smoked. In big letters across the front of the pack, I could swear it said “THIS”. This made me really curious. Was “THIS” the brand name? What kind of a brand name is “THIS” for anything, let alone cigarettes? Wouldn’t that be really confusing in any context?
“Hello, I’d like a pack of cigarettes, please.”
“Certainly. Which brand would you like?”
“I’ll take This.”
“Which?”
“THIS.”
“Which?”
“THIS!!!”
I wanted to get a better look, to make sure I’d read THIS right. Maybe there were periods in between each letter, indicating THIS was an acronym. Perhaps it stood for “Tobacco Heaven… It’s Super!”. Or maybe there’d be a phonetic spelling beneath THIS, revealing that it’s supposed be pronounced “Ties”.
I guess I should have asked the old guy about THIS, but it seemed like a silly thing to bring up during a weedwhacking session. Since then, THIS would pop into my mind every so often, and I’d contemplate the meaning of THIS. Eventually I accepted that THIS would forever remain a mystery.
Until today, when I found THIS:
http://www.torgodevil.com/archives/00000650.htm
At long last! Could THIS be any more clear?