Either way you’re expressing disapproval, usually over something foolish, so it works.
Smack is a little more emphatic, but also has an undertone of self-deprecation that Shake lacks.
Bumped.
Anyone know what these Hollywood acronyms mean? Google and Wiki have failed me. From the production notes for the American dub of Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky: MNS, BTC and OWC.
MNS can mean minutes, is that how long the film is, or a scene? Is there a number in front of it?
I found a couple of references online to “MNS”. It’s a voice-over/dubbing notation that means “Mouth Not Shown/Seen”. I couldn’t find the others (it doesn’t help trying to google BTC that its the common abbreviation for bitcoin). I’d bet that BTC and OWC are similar notations.
Maybe BTC is Betacam. It seems to be a video format, as listed here and SP is mentioned as an option in the Wikipedia page for Betacam.
Perhaps the movie was restored? There’s a mention of OWC in this story about Godfather III.
Thanks, all. “Mouth Not Shown” makes sense, in context. There wasn’t a number in front of “MNS.” The movie wasn’t restored.
Do BTC and OWC make sense in context as similar character notes?
The other notations I found were OM = Open Mouth, CM = Closed Mouth, and CT = Clenched Teeth.
Other World Computing.
No, none seem to fit, in context.
Are you saying the company’s name doesn’t fit, in context?
Yes, I am. The English dub of the movie was done in 1998, apparently before that company was established, and I see no evidence that it played any role in the process.
Can you give us the context?
Here are some examples:
Pazu (His BTC) You’re sure that’s all you remember?
Pazu (His BTC, disgusted) What a greedy pack of thieves.
Dola (Her BTC) I must have that crystal!
And I was wrong, it’s not OWC, it’s OWS (which I also couldn’t figure out through Google or Wiki). There’s just one example of it:
Pazu: (Sips, OWS, blows on his tea)
From context, BTC = Back To Camera?
OWS = Open (mouth) With Smile? That doesn’t really fit, but I’d bet something along those lines.
When I was editing news pieces, my rule was “If an acronym has to be explicitly defined, don’t use it.” I allowed only those acronyms that were so common that the vast majority of readers would know it already.
Exceptions were articles in which the acronym itself was somehow important, and it absolutely had to be explained.
When I was editing legal documents, my fellow lawyers pissed me off all the time … for clarity’s sake when you introduce an acronym or any kind of abbreviation, you should define it, lest a court later find it to be ambiguous. But they would invent unnecessary fucking acronyms.
For example, a simple contract with only two parties, say (making these up) “Smithport Ham Products Company Incorporated” and “North Country Pork Products Supply LLP.”
They would pull shit like Smithport Ham Products Company Incorporated (“SHPCI”) and North Country Pork Products Supply LLP (“NCPPSLLP”).
No! No fucking way. Call them “Smithport” (or “Smithport Ham”) and “North Country” (or “North Country Pork”). Do not invent unnecessary acronyms. Fucking idiots.
While I can understand non-Americans not understanding, say, “PA”, would they really get any more understanding from “Pennsylvania”? For comparison, while I know that, say, “Worchestershire” is a part of the UK, I don’t know where in the UK it is, its demographics, its political leanings, its location relative to other shires, etc. Even with the full spelled-out name, I’m not getting any meaningful information from it.
It’s been a few years now since I’ve stopped paying attention to, or even acknowledging acronyms, initialisms and the like.
I think for me was when Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC. My immediate thought was, Why? It’s become so bad/prevalent that we can no longer read an article without a reference manual next to us to look up all these pointless initials - and most are initialism, not acronyms. I stopped bothering a long time ago. Regardless, it’s all nothing more than an abomination of the English language - or any language.
Just the other day when I called to question an overcharge on my cable bill (I’ll spare you details. Enough to say an ‘agreement’ is meaningless when it comes to them increasing prices. But I digress). She wanted my pin, and pronounced it the same as the word pin. As in the thing you find by the hundreds when you unwrap a new dress shirt. I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. She obviously didn’t either because when I asked what the hell she was talking about, she couldn’t explain. It then hit me that she meant Personal Identification Number. I honestly do not think she had any idea what PIN in fact stood for because during our conversation it became apparent she was quite young and I suspect that to her, PIN was actually a word and that was the end of it. In her world Personal Identification Number didn’t exist. To her it’s PIN or nothing.
We live in f–ked up times.
That makes sense - thanks.