2005-08-02

Initialisms

Strictly speaking, they're not acronyms. Radar, laser, scuba, and quango are acronyms. If I didn't have insomnia I might never have learned this!

U.S.P. = Unique Selling Point
T.L.A. = Three Letter Acronym (sic)
D.N.A. = National Dyslexics Association
R.T.F.C. = Read The Card, Moron!
N.T.S.C. = Not The Same Colour
H.S.B.C. = Half Staffed By Christmas

That last one proves (as far as I require proof, and why are you being so demanding all of a sudden?) that the funniest jokes appeal to the smallest groups of people because they're specific to a situation. I worked for Midland Bank in the late 1990s when its re-branding as part of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation was in full swing. There were job cuts at the time too, so the above joke spread like wildfire.

There's a wonderfully comprehensive guide to initialisms and acronyms here. The O.D.S.A. entries are dynamite.

posted by thisismarcus @ 08:56 

4 Comments:

Blogger Jono said...

When I went away to college in 1990 my parents opened up account for me at the local bank branch - it was Marine Midland Bank.

Also, owned by HSBC - but i wasn't until the late '90s during said world-wide re-branding the names was changed to HSBC.

Well, I have to tell you, I will never deal with that bank again. They only look after customers with alot of money, will screw you over any chance they get and the even the tellers weren't friendly.

I have had much better people-friendly banking now at Key and Wachovia.

Maybe that's what you get when you're become a multi-national banking corporation... you forget where you came from and if you lost all the little guys (who pay your unbelieveable high fees) than you wouldn't exist anymore.

I hope to hell that happens to the Half Staffed By Christmas bank.

19:04  
Blogger Major Rakal said...

I've got you both beat -- in the 80s I banked at a bank in Ithaca called First Federal. That became Marine Midland, before it turned into HSBC.

00:00  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Never heard of HSBC....but I suppose it's kind of like Bank of America? They're all douchebags. I have the luxury of banking at a credit union through the Navy. Thank God.

Thanks, Marcus, for making the distinction between acronyms and initialisms. Very important.

12:30  
Blogger thisismarcus said...

It seemed important at 5am! HSBC is like Bank Of America if America covered half the world. They're huge.

14:45  

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