Howzabout the Gorey alphabet? 
It’s what I used as a working drone.
“J” is for Journalist.
All I can think of is:
A is for Apple
J is for Jacks
Cinnamon toasty Apple Jacks…
A fun thing to do when someone’s spelling at you over the phone is to keep stopping them to ask, “excuse me, that’s (repeat letter) as in what?”
No, no!
*A is for Amy who fell down the stairs
B is for Basil assaulted by bears
C is for Clara who wasted away
D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh*
http://www.wishville.co.uk/gorey/
I give the Gashlycrumb Tinies as a gift to every new parent :D.
- Tamerlane
I’ve always used names and simple words. A for apple, B for Bernard…
A customer service lady was giving me a confirmation code the other day and said “Q as in Cuba”. I started laughing because I honestly thought she was making a joke, then I felt bad when she started stammering “I mean…q as in…as in…as in…” and I finished “quick? quiet? quaint?” for her. Yikes man.
You are correct!! I don’t know what I was thinking. That’ll show me to try to look for a link while disconnecting my brain. :mad:
I’ll just slink off now and hang my head in shame.
I use random words but I make sure they aren’t ambiguous. It’s communicative, and privately amusing.
“That’s P as in Potato; A as in Argonaut; S as in Snake; T as in Trephaning; A as in As In.”
No problems so far.
The case is hopeless. The only reason to use first names is because it became common through military use.
“O” as in “ought”
“H” as in “honor”
“G” as in “gnarly”
When you call tech support in India, and you use these conventions, you’re relying on U.S. cultural hegemony. Whether it (U.S. cultural hegemony) live long or short, I’ve got to wonder how many people in India go by the name of “Charely.”
We say “foxtrot”, not Frank.
[Hijack] The Thai word for “hey you” is “Jim”. I had a rather distracted three months there last year… [/hijack]
Which is almost certainly the ICAO alphabet.
But that’s the thing, none of these phone people use that. They use “M for Mary”, “J for Jones” etc. Is there a list like that that you probably learnt in school?
Anyone here who works the phone jobs, do you get a list or is each one free to use whatever they prefer?
“P” as in “psychology”…
I typically use common nouns, but have been meaning to learn a military alphabet just to be slightly odd. 
I go by the official Schenectady OTB listing:
A apple
B Boy
C Charles
D David
E Edward
F Frank
G George
H Harry
I Ida
J Jack
K King
L Larry
M Mary
N Nancy
O Oscar
P Peter
Q Queen
R Robert
S Sam
U University
V Victor
T, W, X, Y, and Z were rarely used. The letters were the horses in a race, and there was a limit. U and V were needed for entries (two horses with the same owner or trainer).
G as in ghoti (pronounced “fish”)
A few years back, I saw comedian Brian Regan do a bit about this…he said he always feels pressured to come up with words for the letters and can never come up with good ones, so he reads out his confirmation code something like, “That’s a B as in Boston baked beans…a P as in Pneumonia…a K as in Khadafi…and a Q as in…Qadafi.”
P for Relief
Don’t forget that the “p” is silent in swimming.
I was on the phone the other day, not really paying attention, and the person on the other end asked me whether it was B as in ‘boy’. The only thing I could think to respond was that it was V as in ‘not boy’.