By Chris Looser

I was recently having dinner with some friends and we began to talk about the usual subjects…work, our kids, our health, our kids, water rates, gas rates, our kids. One of my friends said she finally got her youngest off to college this past year and was communicating with him over the internet. She said it is really great, except he only talks in initials. “GTG, BBL, Luv, John.”
She typed in, “WHAT?” and he replied, “Got To Go! Be Back Later, Love, John.” She said it took several attempts to get her son to speak “English” to her. For all she knew he was saying “Gone to Germany, Broke, Busted, Lost.” Love, John.
That’s when it hit me. We are now living in a world where almost no one takes the time to spell anything out. Take a few minutes out of your day and notice how many initials you encounter. Here at the Herald we deal in PDF’s or JPEGs or TIFFs . I take FAQs off the FAX to give to the CEO. I haven’t the foggiest what the initials all stand for but without them there would not be a newspaper.
Look at the yellow pages for your doctors. You can choose between D.P.M, CRNP, D.O. or MC., C.N.S.P. It’s kind of scary. You just hope you’re not seeing a foot doctor for a root canal.
Over the holidays, some of my children’s college friends stopped by and I asked where they were attending school. The answer…. UCSF or UTSA, UMAA. I still don’t know where they are going. I just shook my head politely and said, “Oh, I heard that was very nice there.”
Another thing I hate about shortcuts or abbreviations are the ones that are included in phone numbers. They think they are making it so easy to remember their number by making it really cutsey like 1-555-FIGURE ME OUT or 1-555-GOTCHA AGAIN. I hate going to the phone and saying to myself… okay now where is the G, where is the O … Please, would it be so hard just to give me the number?
We all know what IRS stands for, but do you know what a CPA/PFS is or what is to be a member of the NASD/SIPC or to be FDIC insured.
Right here in Delphos we have lots of clubs with initials. Of course we have the CD of A and the CL of C, the FOE and countless others. We watch TV and turn our channels to NBC to watch the NBA, MLB or the NFL.
We’ve all seen those bracelets or bumper stickers with WWJD pronounced on them. I know the message is great (What Would Jesus Do), but I think Jesus would understand that sometimes we need things spelled out, wouldn’t He?
I guess it’s all a sign of the times. No time to spell it out, just lots of time figuring it out. (Sounds like politics to me.) Well, enough preaching for today. GTG & AMBWTNT!
(For the initial impaired…that means…Got to go and all my best wishes till next time!)