Sometimes you just need to read random Wikipedia entries to find things that will educate, entertain, or amuse you. I’m not going to make any kind of statement about Wikipedia as a citeable reference, but damn there’s a lot of stuff in there that’s worth reading anyway.
Today’s example: the article on medical slang. It nicely captures some of that black humour that you just know has to arise in any situation where people are constantly working in very high pressure, very life and death situations.
Some of these I am totally going to take and start using in a computer software context. Some examples:
ATS – Acute Thespian Syndrome (the patient is faking illness)
This one I’m going to transplant to my world to refer to those people who inflate the nature of their contributions to particular successes, or who make there work seem much harder, or much more significant than it actually is.
CNS-QNS – Central Nervous System – Quantity Not Sufficient.
This one I suspect I will save for discussing people who made some particular decisions that I think were… um… not the right decision.
DBI – “Dirt Bag Index”, multiply the number of tattoos by the number of missing teeth to give an estimate of the number of days since the patient last bathed.
I have no use for this in the software context, but it amuses the hell out of me.
DFKDFC – “Don’t fucking know, don’t fucking care”, a diagnosis often applied to a surgery’s most regular visitors. Most often treated with a low-dosage course of Amoxycillin.
I’d like to use this as both IM shorthand for some of the questions I get every day, and I’d also like to make this a t-shirt.
Polybabydadic – The state of having illegitimate children by several fathers, known or unknown.
Also one that doesn’t really apply to the computer world–at least not as I’ve encountered it–but one that amuses me. In this case it’s primarily the fact that written form of the word appears medical and obscure, but as soon as you actually say it it becomes obvious. Of course you could alter the pronunciation and syllable stress to create something less obvious sounding…
I’m left wondering if there’s an equivalent entry for cop slang… off to Wikipedia again.
