Miles Gift ATDTDA (1) pg 23/24

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

Actually, the HPatGoF passage reminded me of the following exchange
between Oedipa and Stanley Koteks:

She took a chance: "Then the WASTE address isn't good any more." But
she'd pronounced it like a word, waste. His face congealed, a mask of
distrust. "It's W.A.S.T.E., lady," he told her, "an acronym, not
'waste,' and we had best not go into it any further." (TCoL49, Harper
Perennial Classics, pp. 69-70.)


Heikki

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007, David Casseres wrote:
> On 1/29/07, Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
> > Inside were about fifty badges, all of different colours, but
> > all bearing the same letters: S.P.E.W. "'Spew'?" said Harry,
> > picking up a badge and looking at it. "What's this about?"
> > "Not *spew*", said Hermione impatiently. "It's S-P-E-W,
> > stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."
>
> Actually, acronym gags have been a staple of pop literature since long
> before The Crying of Lot 49.  There was SMERSH in the James Bond novels, and
> many others in junk that I've read and can't remember well enough to quote
> (actually I'm too embarrassed by the junk I've read to be willing to quote
> it.)  I'm sure someone could come up with a dozen pre-Pynchonian acronym
> gags.  He was following examples, not the other way around.
>