Posted by Patrick Fox on November 20, 1997 at 00:19:30:
In Reply to: Re: Great Northern? posted by Ian Wright on November 19, 1997 at 22:46:47:
I have to agree. Although I've been more than guilty of using the initials myself since the "fashion" swept TARboard over the last month or two I haven't really felt comfortable with them either. "Peter Duck" and "Great Northern" are old friends but, for me, PD is Peritoneal Dialysis and GN Glomerulonephritis (I'm a doctor)! It takes a moment to mentally convert back to the titles and I'm sure other people have their own meanings for these initials too (although I admit doctors are especially bad at abbreviating everything!). Anyway, I'll happily join a campaign to only use full titles from now on.
That said, even AR himself admits some of his titles are rather long. He's quoted in Hugh Brogan's "Life..." as writing about "We Didn't..." "there are EIGHT words in its entirely memorable and inevitable title .....EIGHT!". Maybe we could allow shortened rather than abbreviated titles.
Cheers
Patrick