It's shaping up to be a Good Friday

Dear members and constituents,

What do laser, radar and scuba have in common? (No, the answer does not involve the plot to a James Bond movie). Give up? They are all acronyms...

Laser = Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation
Radar = Radio Detection And Ranging
Scuba = Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

Sure, the world of telecommunications is fraught with them (try to think of the last five sentences you uttered, I'd be extremely surprised if at least one of them did not contain one or more acronyms), however they've been around longer than you may realize. Early Christian inscriptions in Roman catacombs used the image of a fish as a symbol for Jesus because of an acronym—fish in Greek is ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthys), which stood for Ιησους Χριστος Θεου Υιος Σωτηρ (Iesous CHristos THeou Uios Soter: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior).

In case you're wondering, donut is not an acronym (although, understandably, geeky scientists and engineers have from time to time named things so their acronym would spell donut). Donuts are, however, here courtesy of Roger Greene! So, come on down, get yours and walk away feeling energized to discuss the SLAs your customer wants for VT, EPL or CDN (although technically the jargon in the preceding sentence has initialisms, not acronyms, because none of those abbreviations are pronounced as words... but that would be splitting hairs)

Have a Good Friday!

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Donut Doodle Dandy

Dear Members and Constituents, In trying to figure-out Wednesday’s cool-looking Google Doodle ( Jorge Luis Borges’ 112 th birthday ), I stumbled across a list of Google Doodles you’ll never see. This, and a Rockies game later that day, were sufficient inspiration to get my head spinning around what other doodles Google might never noodle? I’m sure you’ll probably have a few ideas of your own, but I was able to come-up with a couple. How about a former Colorado Rockies player whose unfortunate encounter with a moth put him in the news this week? The Matt Holliday doodle might look something like this… Another item which, surprisingly enough, has not been made into a doodle are donuts. Although I was slightly taken aback to find this delicious pastry has not been featured, after the initial disappointment, I decided to take matters into my own hands and take a stab at one (perhaps Google can use it next year for national donut day )… or to celebrate Greek police having “ blown a ho...

Gilding the Donut

Friends, Despite writing about donuts (sort of) for over 20 years, I don’t believe in sugar coating, after all, honesty is the best policy. Gilding, on the other hand I’m good with. Take the church of the Society of Jesus in Quito, (AKA La Compañía). Built in fits and starts between 1597 and 1765, the volcanic rock baroque facade conceals a spectacular interior. I had the chance to go inside this week and although I had heard about the gold leaf work inside, the descriptions had not done it justice. The details from floor to ceiling transport you to another world, perhaps that’s the point. If you’re ever there, be sure to visit. And while you’re there stop by one of the many panaderías … if you’re lucky they might even have a donut. Happy Friday!

The Wrong Word

Friends, Do you ever find yourself starting to say a word, realizing it’s the wrong choice and trying to change it while speaking — making it worse? For me, it’s happened more times than I care to admit. A recurring faux pas for me occurs at the part of the mass where the congregation says “when we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim your death, o Lord, until you come again”. For some reason my brain wants to say “profess” instead of “proclaim” — which would essentially mean the same thing. Unfortunately, in my clumsy attempts to fix my mistake mid-word, what comes out sounds like “profane” — totally the wrong vibe. Good thing the entire congregation is saying the same thing in unison. If someone heard me they might think the priest was consecrating a donut, instead of the host. Happy Friday!

Friday Donuts

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