We Know What?

Hello and welcome to This is What We Know. This being the inaugural post at TiWWK, I bet you're wondering what this is all about; what, exactly, you might be asking yourself, do we know?

However, first things first: Abbreviation. When I decided on the name This is What We Know, I knew I'd have to cut that down to an abbreviated moniker. What with terms such as "e-mail" (short for electronic mail), the "web" (short for the World Wide Web, which is another term for the nerdier-sounding "internet"), and "blog" (short for weblog, which invokes the term "world wide web" which, if you'll remember, we learned before), anything involving the "web" seems to have no more than two syllables. Far be it from me to act unorthodoxly, and, by last count, This is What We Know has no less than 5 syllables.

That is why it is necessary for me abridge the name of this blog so that when people reference it as they might reference an e-mail or blog in casual water-cooler conversation, they won't be winded at the end of their statement. Just imagine. "Hey Palmer, did you check out the latest world wide web log entry on This is What We Know, found at uniform resource locator http://thisiswhatweknow.blogspot.com?" - "No, I did not, Coniferous, my long-time co-worker and friend here at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. Pray tell, what did you extract from this internet log entry?" Who'd want to party with those squares, let alone talk to them around the water-cooler.

So the question is, what should the condensed version of This is What We Know be? I have already snuck in the first candidate: TiWWK. This is the obvious acronymic option. It looks pretty snappy, in my personal opinion, but it lacks the phonetic quality of, say, NASA, NAFTA, NATO, or most other acronyms that start with "NA." If we were to say TiWWK phonetically, we end up with something like Teewuwuk, which, unfortunately, sounds like gibberish. And if we choose to simply say the individual letters, we end up with more syllables than if were to just say the actual name for which it stands.

Do you see the conundrum? Oh well. Call it what you like. Just don't talk like those zeroes Palmer and Coniferous and I think we'll all be fine. Coniferous. Who names themselves that?

Hit up Teewuwuk next time, where I'll tell you more about what we know.

Tags: webspeak, new blog