Page 123~

A friend of mine who has a wonderful blog sent me a continuation game.

Rules:

1. Grab the nearest book of 123 pages or more.
2. Open it to page 123.
3. Find the first 5 sentences and write them down.
4. Then invite 5 friends to do the same.

This is from "At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays" by Anne Fadiman, which I just reviewed for the Internet Review of Books. I love this book. The author is witty, curious, and intellectual all at once. She makes me want to read more and write more. You'll have to read my review when it comes out later this month. But, back to the game...

Okay, page 123. The essay: Mail by Anne Fadiman

But wait, you pipe up. Someone just e-mailed me a joke! So she did, but wasn't the personality of the sender slightly muffled by the fact that she forwarded it from and e-mail she received and sent it to thirty-seven additional addresses?

I also take a dim, or perhaps buffaloed, view of electronic slang. Perhaps I should view it as a linguistic milestone, as historic as the evolution of Cockney rhyming slang in the 1840's. But will the future generations who pry open our hard drives be stirred by the eloquence of the e-acronyms recommended by a Web site on "netiquette?"

Those were the five sentences, but let me go on, because Anne Fadiman sums it up with these fine examples:

BTDT --been there done that
FC --fingers crossed
IITYWTMWYBMAD --if I tell you what this means will you buy me a drink?
MTE --my thoughts exactly
ROTFL --rolling on the floor laughing
RTFM --read the fucking manual
TANSTAAFL --there ain't no such thing as a free lunch
TAH --take a hint
TTFN --ta ta for now

Well, I'm in full agreement here. What will the archeologists in 2150 AD think of these gems when they take a look in the computer files of Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe? I can hear them now.

"Toanfd, flassreak!" diu8 Jlakldsj.

"Yofnel ti akepiamn usoi," diu8 wenalopa, "weiha sesm walmjfs?"

"Fuck!" diu8 Jlakldsj.

Some words won't ever change. Of that I'm sure.

So, I will pass the torch to as many bloggers as I can think of:

Mridu Khullar

Bob Sanchez

Gary Presley

Meraiah Foley