WordFixx

Names can get mixed up, too. Real or fictional people can become legends, or end up garbled and forgotten. A classic case is poor Frankenstein. If you're picturing the big lumbering monster with the bolts in his neck ... oops. Frankenstein was the doctor who created the monster. The monster was simply known as "the monster" or "Frankenstein's Monster." Strangely, "Franken-" has become a prefix on its own. I've heard big ugly things named that way, from a Frankencouch to a Frankenpuppy. I wonder if this was urged along by the old FrankenBerry cereal? Sure is a weird thing to make a prefix out of, especially considering the original Franken- thing was not a monster, but a mad scientist. Now, where does Al Franken fit into all this?

With so many abbreviations and acronyms flying around in a typical conversation, you'd think we would have run out of letters by now. In fact, we have. But an acronym doesn't have to be unique in any universal sense, only unique within the subculture that uses it, or the context it appears in. As an example, RPG means "Role-playing Game" AND "Rocket-propelled Grenade." Even if you found a gamer who was on the front lines, properly equipped, he'd still know from the context whether a grenade or a game book was called for. Likewise, with "WFP," who would confuse the "World Food Program" with "Windows File Protection"? Though there's also a "Witness for Peace" organization for nonviolent activism. While any word can be used as a code for something else, acronyms are well suited to this, due to their inherent mystery. I recall many conversations in college where "UFO" had nothing to do with flying ...