So here’s the deal. Yesterday evening it occurred to me that Valentine’s Day could properly be abbreviated VD; I’ve since been wishing the little moosette “Happy VD!” (Fortunately, she is tolerant of my sense of humor. I think.)
It occurs to me that this would be an interesting thread topic: abbreviations that contradict what they abbreviate, or otherwise seem weird, or are just plain funny.
One old example comes to mind: it is said the commander of American naval forces in the Pacific used to be known at the Commander-in-Chief, U.S.; which, in typical military style, was abbreviated CINCUS (pronounced “sink us”; it was changed to CINCPAC shortly after Pearl Harbor.)
On a lot of those wedding planning communities, they refer to save the dates as STDs. Yeah. I get confused every time, and for a moment think about cards that say “yay, we’re giving you syphilis!” instead of “yay, we’re getting married! Save the date!”
It’s probably apocryphal, but I was once told that back in the 1950’s the BBC briefly had a technical post called “Assistant Regional Sound Engineer”. The job title was changed shortly after it was realised what the abbreviation would be.
In the 90s, there were two major right-wing political parties in Canada: The Progressive Conservatives, a centre-right party, and the Reform Party, a newer, grassroots party that was further to the right. For a number of political reasons, a merger of the two parties was attempted. They called it the (and I swear I’m not making this up) Canadian Conservative-Reform Alliance party. The Liberals, who have never missed an opportunity to get a good soundbite in, loudly denounced the new party as Canadian CRAP. :smack:
The name was quickly changed to the Canadian Reform-Conservative Alliance(which, being far too many syllables, was usually shortened to the Canadian Alliance).