POW!

"Ha ha. Very punny."
"You know the word pun is an acronym."
"Is it? What for?"
"Play On Words."
"Oh yeah, of course... No... hang on. That can't be right. It's P U N, not P O N."
"Oh my God. Isn't that weird? Maybe it's actually Play UPON Words?"
"Yes, Play Upon Words. That must be it. Pass the ice cream."

This is a transcript of a conversation I had with my best friend some years ago, at the tragic tail end of a particularly messy night. It marks, I believe, the beginning of my absurd love affair with acronyms.

I say this now because I suspect my future posts will be littered with odd little groups of letters, giving the impression that most of the vowels have fallen off my keyboard. It's a habit born of a love of corny wordplay, combined with years working in the Travel Industry, which is an acronymic paradise (or hell, depending). Imagine my paroxysmic delight when consulting the FFA* for an IATA fare from CDG to JFK. Nowadays, in the corporate training world, I'm in a new kind of heaven. I am in the process of writing a Negotiation Skills course teaching BDMs how to SWOT their BATNA. And my boss just asked if she could TIS my BOF. (Excuse me while my toes curl.) I am especially excited by a good TLA.

So now you've been warned... keep reading AYOR.

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* for the acronymously challenged:

FFA = Fares From Australia
IATA = International Air Transport Association
BDM = Business Development Manager
SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats,
BATNA = Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement
TIS = Total Information Share
BOF = Brightness Of Future
TLA = Three Letter Acronym
AYOR = At Your Own Risk