We see Acronyms everywhere. They have become so commonplace in our society, that we barely even notice they are there. By definition, it is a word that is made up from initials. Mostly. And then once those initials come together, it makes a pronounced word, or phrase.
You know how it works. NATO for The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NASA from The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and on.
If I had one, my acronym might be PCK. But if you pronounce it fast, it would be like “Piece of Cake.” Not a very good symbology for my true nature. And to that, I shall LOL and BRB.
But here are a few I happened across, which are interesting.
Have you ever noticed on many your zippers, there are the initials YKK? Well, there are. I wear a lot of zippers. I know. It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha in Japanese, which translates to “Yoshida Manufacturing Corporation.” The name Yoshida is the founder-dude. If your zipper does not have it, there is a good chance you will run into zipper trouble. For decades now, apparel makers who don’t want to use cut-rate fasteners have all turned to YKK. They are the high-quality zipper guys, and they make roughly half of all the zippers on earth. More than 7 billion zippers each year. If your jacket doesn’t have YKK, you may get crooked teeth.
You can buy your clothes with zippers at Kmart. Yes, the Kmart.
I have been in and out of Kmarts since I was a kid. In my very young kid-mind, I thought the K could have stood for Kronenberger-Mart. The Big K. But. In fact. It stands for Kresge. As in founder Sebastian S. Kresge. We used to have a Kresge store in Dayton. We’d say we were going to “The Kresge.” But they started to switch things around in their business plans. In 1962, the first Kmart opened in the U.S. Garden City, Michigan to be exact. Just for the record, the Kmart opened four months before the first Walmart. Sam.
Do you have a Kmart or a Walmart near you? Where do you live? What in the world is your ZIP Code? Is is a ZIP code because the mail is so zippy? No. It is ZIP Code because it stands for Zone Improvement Plan. Now you know. You live in a Zone. It has been improved.
Invariably, when shopping at Kresge’s, or Kmart, I would buy a roll of NECCO Wafers. They weren’t really my favorite, but there was something oddly satisfying about them. Those NECCO’s. And who knew how far they had traveled. NECCO stands for New England Confectionery Company.
However, the NECCO will never compare to the M&M. M&M’s stands for Mars & Murrie’s, referring to founders Forrest Mars, Sr. and Bruce Murrie. Peanut or plain, it is all the same.
If all that candy makes you sick, you may need to stop by the pharmacy. The CVS Pharmacy. Consumer Value Store. I am not sure if it means that they value their consumers, or if consumers can find value, or perhaps both. Next time I go, I will ask the Pharmacist, and I am sure they will gladly field my question.
I could go on and on here, in this world of the Acronym. But I feel that I should wrap things up. And to wrap, one must have tape. And when I think of adhesives, I think of 3M. Well, and Post-It Notes, and Pens, and of course, Tape. But the 3M is truly a series of 3 m’s. The Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. I am not quite sure how one gets from Mining, to Scotch Tape. But there it is.
I hope today, that if the world is talking to you in Acronyms, that you will have a clear understanding of its meaning. Most of the time, for me, the Universe speaks in that Mystery Code. Most of the time, I don’t have that Secret Acronym-Decoder-Ring. If I had that Ring, understanding the all of this would be a Piece of Cake.
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“There was no one alive who did not contribute his share of mystery to the world.”
― Kevin Brockmeier
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“Every solution to every problem is simple. It’s the distance between the two where the mystery lies.”
― Derek Landy, Skulduggery Pleasant
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“What you choose also chooses you.”
― Kamand Kojouri
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