Dr. Dobb's Journal March 2004
ANFSCD. The acronym SSEWBA stands for "someday soon everything will be acronyms." In this puzzle, that day has arrived. Your job is to match the acronyms (used in chat, e-mail, and elsewhere) in the first list with the names in the second list. Uh, no, the acronyms don't stand for the names. That would be too easy. But each acronym is related to one of the names in some way. The connection may be obvious or obscure, fair or devious, but there is a connection. The hints at the bottom of the page may help, or they may not. It's strictly FYA, so GA and HF!
A. AWOL 1. Alexander B.
B. DEC 2. Berkeley B.
C. FOB 3. George B.
D. FUD 4. Steve B.
E. GR 5. Grey D.
F. MHOTY 6. Howard D.
G. PMIGBOM 7. Larry E.
H. SWMBO 8. Carly F.
I. SYITFP 9. Rob G.
J. TEOTWAWKI 10. Bill M.
K. TMI 11. Mike M.
L. TPC 12. Scott M.
M. TTTH 13. Michael S.
N. WFLT 14. Uma T.
O. WSLS 15. Tom W.
P. WYGC 16. Saruman W.
Hint 1: Here are some hints regarding the names, in no particular order: The doctor had 'em in stitches; He let guard down; He's big in Washington; Overloaded in pulp fiction; Terminated; Oratoracle; Thinker; Sound man; Penguin power returns; ...and I feel fine; Now we're talking; Off the heir; Ghost in translation; Uruk-Hai warpaint; Partial eclipse; "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat."
Hint 2: If that didn't do it, this should. The acronyms stand for, in order: Absent Without Leave; Do Expect Cuts; Friend Of Bill; Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt; Get Real; My Hat's Off To You; Put Mind In Gear Before Operating Mouth; She Who Must Be Obeyed; See You In The Funny Papers; The End Of The World As We Know It; Too Much Information; The Phone Company; Talk To The Hand; With Friends Like These; Win Some, Lose Some; Who You Gonna Call?
Hint 3: If you still don't have them all, here are the missing last (and a few middle) names, not so helpfully presented in alphabetical order: Ballmer; Bell; Breathed; Bush; Davis; Dean; Dubya; Ellison; Fiorina; Glaser; Graham; McNealy; Murray, Myers; Stipe; the; Thurman; Watson; White.
Hint 4: One list of acronyms is at http://www.netlingo.com/emailsh.cfm. And ANFSCD = And Now For Something Completely Different.
Michael Swaine
editor-at-large
mike@swaine.com