Les Frijo

paul wheaton wrote:Was it the book 1984 that was reworking the language to make it "better"?

Yeah that's newspeak. I see it all the time in English. Like changing 'plumber' to 'licensed enclosed cylindrical flow technician'. Or whatever. Usually taking something that already makes sense and making it sound more important or technical than it is or trying really hard to not offend anyone.

I guess MT is actually newspeak for Montana. I think people knew what Montana was before the post office needed MT.

I think it's random and cool.

Christopher Weeks wrote:I'm curious, do random non-UScians know that our states, by name, are part of the US? If I tell rando international folks that I live in Minnesota is it usually more meaningful than saying I live in MN? (And I now live closer to Canada than I do to any of the other four states where I've previously resided, so it doesn't surprise me that Jay, specifically, knows Minnesota, but I wonder more generally.)

Do you mean like Georgia state could be confused with the Georgia country kind of thing?

For many years I had a web domain that ended with .mn because I thought it was cool to have for Minnesota. That went away at some point and now it's for Mongolia.

Here's a page with 2 letter country abbreviations
https://www.willmaster.com/blog/misc/country-name-abbreviations.php

One thing I've noticed is that if words are spelled out I instantly know what words are being conveyed. Once abbreviations etc. enter the mix I now feel like I have to work harder for understanding. Kinda like I'm now working for the writer. First thing I think when I see ME in an address is Mebraska. Then I remember it's Maine. I just lost a second or two of brain power.

Herb

Hery

Aery

Greg Martin wrote:Wait, does that mean that my "I love Maine" mug is not funny to Canadians???

I love that!