BBC -laugh or cry?

[ppppenguin]

This is NOT a political topic and I sincerely hope it won't head that way.

On Page 42 (p46 in the pdf) of the 1939 BBC Yearbook it says:

A less flattering tribute was accorded by a listener who drew the BBC's attention to a second interpretation of its initials, which in A.R.P. circles stands for 'Bromo- benzyl- cyanide -an irritant gas having a lachrymatory effect which may persist for several days'.)

https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/BBC-Ann...k-1939.pdf

Also known as the Broken Biscuit Company and Ben's Bargain Centre. The latter is where those mains plus marked "BBC" come from

I thought the BBC used to be the B.B.C but in 1939 they were using the modern looking version without full stops. In the quote it was A.R.P. rather than ARP.

It would be against forum rules to turn this into a political or BBC bashing thread but there's no rule about prohibiting fun. So this is a licence to have fun with names, abbreviations and more, as well as our beloved Beeb. For example: NTSC  = Never Twice the Same Colour.

[peter scott]

Although not an abbreviation I did think slogan "Clap for the NHS" was unfortunate.

Peter

[valvekits]

I once attended a presentation on photo enhanced nuclear intrinsic spectroscopy.

Unfortunately, the speaker was from Japan and had no idea why the audience were left laughing after he put up his first slide.

[ppppenguin]

Peter, you were not alone Or has the colloquial meaning of "clap" rather slipped out (of use)? I'm now trying to steer this thread away from schoolboy sniggering. That last word must be typed with care. Jack de Manio's memory lives on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_de_Manio

What we now call MRI scans used to be NMR scans. But the N word (the acceptable one) was judged too scary.

As for BBC vs B.B.C. I looked in a couple of (paper) yearbooks. In 1933 the dots were there, in 1946 they weren't. To stop or not to stop, that is the question. Vast amounts of ink have been spilled on this. Modern UK usage tends away from using full stops. The USA may be more resistant. I think the BBC was ahead of prevailing opinion on this question.

I googled "full stops in abbreviations" and got lots of differing opinions. Here's a style guide from academia where I learned that when writing dates such as 43AD or 400BCE the AD or BCE should be in small capitals if possible. In academic writing, unless it's specifically about christian matters, I thought that CE/BCE were now standard and that BC/AD were deprecated.
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punc...dabbr/abbr

Would many of us write Mr. Jones these days? I certainly wouldn't, preferring Mr Jones.

33 Acacia Avenue,
London,
NW9.

or

33 Acacia Avenue
London
NW9

Always the latter for me. Royal Mail agrees with me: https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/...ressing%29

[Kalee20]

Would many of us write Mr. Jones these days? I certainly wouldn't, preferring Mr Jones.

33 Acacia Avenue,
London,
NW9.

or

33 Acacia Avenue
London
NW9

Always the latter for me. Royal Mail agrees with me: https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/...ressing%29

Well, I'll be jiggered!

I'd have gone for:

Mr Jones,
 33 Acacia Avenue,
  LONDON,
    Middlesex.
NW9 YXX

Having read Jeffrey's link, I'll restyle my future addressing!

And abbreviations - I tend not to use full stops after each letter.

[Raditechman]

I put commas and full stops on address labels, since reading the Royal Mail link in ppppenguin's post I will stop doing so.
I guess can they confuse automatic readers.

John

[Pye Man]

I was taught to put a comma behind the house number in addition to at the end of a line and each line was to be indented a little further than the one above.

Of course, this was a very long time ago and the biggest problem I found was transferring the correct amount of ink from the well to the nib of my dip pen to write a line without a blob or running out of ink! (Fact.)

I remember when sending Christmas cards that rather than writing the nearest town and then the county which was laborious on so many envelopes, for those addresses that were only a couple of miles away it was acceptable to write 'LOCAL' after the district.

[ppppenguin]

Using the county name has been deprecated for many years. At one time I lived in Harrow, Middlesex. Harrow has been the postal town for many years.

[Pye Man]

My memories of use of 'local' goes way back to the days long before postcodes, though big cities did have district numbers at that time.

My aunt and uncle had a long address that went: 999 Main Street, 'Village', Small Town, Larger District, County. The 'Village' name was, of course, well known to the local sorting offices.

There are several places in the UK with the same name as the 'village' we lived in and at least one other place (in London) of the same name as the nearest town.

ISTR the first time I saw my address without a county was on my first computerised 'green' driving licence which was about 1975. Our address had gained a post code by that point.

I have friends in the Croydon area who always use the 'village' name, Surrey and post code.

(Of course, ultimately, a number and post code is all that is required to find you.)

[ppppenguin]

If you live in Epping Green you might do well to put the county in the address. Though it should be taken care of by the postcode. There are 2 villages with that name, about 5 miles apart. One in Herts, the other in Essex.