By GORDIE LITTLE, Small Talk
Here's a trivia question for you: What acronym is most associated with my radio career?
If you answered, "BM for big mouth," you're only partly correct.
Shortly after going on the air in Plattsburgh almost 49 years ago, I began referring to myself as "Gordie Little, Who's He?" I'm flattered when people greet me on the street these days with the moniker I took with me when I left the radio business almost 13 years ago.
It was still 1961 when listeners began to opt for the acronym GLWH. It managed to stick like glue, and I took full advantage of it. There were numerous contests and humorous promos using those letters to stand for phrases such as "Girls Like White Hats." I did everything to perpetuate the acronym short of having it tattooed on my chest.
I ran a GLWH radio knobs campaign one year, asking listeners to send me the tuning knob from their radios so they could never again change the station. I offered to send a 45-rpm hit record to each person who responded with a knob. Old-timers will confirm that the mailman carried some heavy loads back and forth for several weeks. Knobs poured in by the thousands, and the boss almost fired me for expending an inordinate amount of postage to send out records for every knob.
It was almost the end of my career but a heartening exercise nonetheless. Somewhere in my cluttered garage, there is a box filled with miscellaneous tuning knobs as a reminder of TGT (the good times). Somewhere in the area are senior citizens with MK (missing knobs). Cue the laugh track.
FLOATING ON AIR
Last week, I was honored to speak to one of my favorite groups. RODEO stands for "Retired Old Doctors Eating Out." I first met them when I did a TV documentary during the 75th anniversary of Physician's Hospital, built in Plattsburgh by William H. Miner in 1926.
What a sterling bunch they are, and their wives accompanied them for this event at a local restaurant. I filled them with my usual rambling drivel, and we had a ball exchanging old war stories. Besides that, lunch was delicious.
I know it's hard for anyone who has gauged my girth to believe, but engaging conversation is to me just as delightful as a man-sized meal. I left the place floating on air, and on the drive home I focused on the hundreds of acronyms that have crept into our daily conversations — especially our Tweets and e-mails.
I even invented one in speaking with a friend who was caught in the recent mid-Atlantic region storm. They got hammered last weekend and were expecting yet another dumping of snow. Businesses were sold out of snow shovels, not to mention milk and bread. My friend broke two older snow shovels and had to make do until a new shipment came in to his favorite store. When his power was restored, I quipped via e-mail that the storm had precipitated a new acronym, BS for broken shovels. I'm not sure he was amused.
PARENTS IN ROOM
It dawns on me that some popular acronyms are far better known than the phrases from which they were born. SCUBA is one. It stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. AWOL is another. It means absent without leave.
Does anyone remember BOAC, British Overseas Airway Corporation? Some wag jested that it stood for "better on a camel."
Speaking of RODEO, the medical profession has a most interesting and sometimes colorful list of shorthand acronyms to enhance its difficult jobs and make communications more efficient. One of my favorites is CHAOS, chronic hurts all over syndrome. I also chuckle that some physicians refer to a proctologist as an RA (rear admiral).
The military has used acronyms as part of its nomenclature for a long time. Some are relatively innocuous, while many others are not suitable for a family newspaper.
Watch your kids when they correspond via e-mail or Twitter. If you see them type "PIR," it means parents in room. Most of us know by now what LOL means (laughing out loud). MYOB is mind your own business, and BYOB on an invitation stands for bring your own booze.
TAFN (That's all for now). HAGD (Have a great day), and please, DC (drive carefully).
Gordie Little was for many years a well-known radio personality in the North Country and now hosts the "Our Little Corner" television program for Home Town Cable. Anyone with comments for him may send them to the newspaper or e-mail him at gordandk@aol.com.
