Initials That Meant More Than They Realized

[Platapus]

An amusing article about legitimate acronyms and initializations that had "different" meanings in the common cultures.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/63487

1. WTF

In 2009, the Wisconsin Tourism Federation’s biggest problem wasn’t finding a way to attract more people to the metropolitan Kenosha area; it was the realization that its initials mirrored the slang abbreviation for “What the F—?” The WTF from America’s Dairyland has been around since 1979, so it likely predates the vulgar WTF. In the end, though, you can’t fight an internet meme. The organization changed its name to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin.

The WTF’s only consolation must be that it’s not alone. In 2008, the North Carolina DMV allowed drivers whose license plates contained “WTF” to swap out their tags free of charge. The DMV also had to change its website; the sample plate pictured on the site was “WTF-5505.”
2. DOA

In a move that must have been unsettling for thousands of Iowa’s seniors, the state changed the name of its Department of Elder Affairs to the Department on Aging, or DOA, in 2009. Something’s telling us that the change hasn’t helped Iowa’s elderly sleep any easier. The organization now goes by IDA, for Iowa Department on Aging.
3. AIDS

When Joan Woehrmann started her ambulance company in Whittier, CA, in 1955, she hit on a pretty brilliant acronym: AIDS. The letters stood for “attitude, integrity, dependability, and service,” which are all great qualities for an ambulance line. The name was also easy to remember in times of crisis.
She didn’t foresee the name eventually signifying one of the greatest medical catastrophes of the century, though. By 1985, the LA Times reported that Woehrmann’s drivers were being taunted and that the public mistakenly started to think that the line only transported AIDS patients.
Finally, she had enough and changed the line’s name to “AME,” even giving up the ambulances’ customized line of “AIDS 1” and “AIDS 2” license plates.
4. SUX

While FAA identifiers for airports aren’t technically acronyms, the three-letter codes can give rise to their own headaches. Just ask the Sioux City Gateway Airport, which the FAA saddled with the unfortunate designator “SUX.” Airport authorities petitioned for a new code, and the FAA – and this is not a joke – offered them “GAY” as a nod to the “Gateway” part of the airport’s name.

Sioux City decided that switching to GAY probably wouldn’t save them much sophomoric taunting, so officials decided to make the best of the SUX situation. Now the airport markets playful t-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “Fly SUX.”
SUX might not even be the worst airport code. According to a 2008 LA Times story, Fresno’s is FAT, and Perm, Russia’s is PEE. The big winner has to be Fukuoka, Japan, though. We’ll let you guess how that one gets abbreviated.
5. SLUT

In 2007, Seattle opened a new streetcar line connecting the South Lake Union neighborhood to the city’s downtown. While the project was officially called the South Lake Union Streetcar, local residents began ribbing it as the South Lake Union Trolley, or SLUT. Although the city and the line’s developers did what they could to dispel the notion that the line had a bawdy name, residents still refer to it as the SLUT; in 2007 the Seattle Post-Intelligencer even reported that a coffeehouse was selling t-shirts that read, “Ride the SLUT.”
6. CCRAP

In 2000, delegates of Canada’s United Alternative convention needed a name for their newly formed political party. They came up with Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party, which in addition to taking roughly six minutes to pronounce was abbreviated CCRAP. Organizers quickly realized the blunder and changed the party’s name to the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance.
7. WPPSS


In 1998, the Washington Public Power Supply System chose to change its name to Energy Northwest to discourage people from pronouncing its unfortunate acronym as “Whoops!” The old name left the utility open to quite a bit of taunting in 1983, when the WPPSS defaulted on $2.25 billion worth of bonds. Whoops indeed.
8. POOF

In 1990, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Florida decided it had heard just about enough kidding about its acronym, POOF, which resembled an old offensive term for a homosexual man. The musicians changed their name to the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.
9. The C-word

In 2002, Microsoft had to do a little rearranging on the fly. It quickly and quietly changed its ribald “Critical Update Notification Tool” to the more family friendly “Critical Updated Notification Utility.”
10. NIC

What’s wrong with NIC? In English, nothing. In Arabic, a whole heck of a lot. When the Coalition Provisional Authority began planning new Iraqi armed forces in 2003, they originally called them the New Iraqi Corps. They hit a big snag, though. As ABC News reported, in Arabic “nic” is “a colorful synonym for fornication.” The coalition quickly changed the name to the New Iraqi Army.

Can anyone remember any other legitimate acronyms or initializations that had "unfortunate" cultural meanings or pronunciations?


They have to be legitimate ones and you may be asked to post a reference.


Let me start with two


1. National Imagery and Mapping Agency - NIMA Pronounced, unofficially, as enema.


2. About a million years ago, Air Force offices were listed in the phone book according to their initialization which followed a universal pattern


HQSAC meant Headquarters Strategic Air Command. In HQSAC there was a logistics office. Logistics were identified, back then, by the two letter initialization of SU. Attached to this logistics office, was an office which worked only exercise logistics. Exercise offices were identified by the single letter X. So in the official base phone book, this exercise office was identified as



HQSACSUX <face palm> DOH!


Anyone else have some real examples of DOH acronyms?

[Subnuts]

My mother owns a French Connection United Kingdom T-Shirt. You can imagine she gets some funny looks from time to time.

And since this is SUBSIM, there's the infamous Commander In Chief, United States Fleet (CINCUS), pronounced "sink us," which was promptly changed to COMINCH after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

[TLAM Strike]

Strategic Air Command 'Nuff Said...

[Sailor Steve]

I've been a fan of that particular branch of the Air Force since I was a kid, and I never noticed that connection until you put in into this context!

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I've been a fan of that particular branch of the Air Force since I was a kid, and I never noticed that connection until you put in into this context!

Hmm, what? Ball SAC?

Unfortuantly, the AF did away with MAC, SAC, and TAC. In 1992 they did a whole lot of restructuring. Reshuffeling the major commands into AMC, ACC, and whatever else. They took this restructring all the way down to the squadron level. 4 digit squadron numbers were eliminated, and brought down to 3 squadron numbers. When I went to basic, I was assigned to the 3701 BMTS. When i graduated, it's named had been changed to the 321 BMTS. At the same time they did away with buck sargeants. So the AF rank structure, you go from Senior Airman, and then to Staff Sargeant, with nothing in between.

Anywho, AMC always made me laugh.. Air Mobiliity command, or we talking about AMC theaters?



Edit:
The best acronym by far (thought it was entirely made up and had no unintended meaning) was ATC. Supposed to be "Air Training Command", but everyone called it the "American Toy Company". Some vauge reference to toy soldiers i guess. A "training base" was known as a "toy base". Someone decided to remove the fun and renamed the command AETC. For Air Education & Training Command. Training bases remained "toy bases" in my book though.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

So the AF rank structure, you go from Senior Airman, and then to Staff Sargeant, with nothing in between.

It was weird back in the day when we had E-4 non-NCO (Sr Airman) and E-4 NCO (Sergeant).

[Platapus]

POTUS - President of the United States

potus - masculine gender of drink or something to drink, in Latin