Last week’s column on deep star fields as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) nearly 30 years ago and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), both spearheaded by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Agency) got me thinking about acronyms. We’re living in a world of internet-fueled acronyms (WIFAs?), from NSFW (Not Suitable For Work) to FOMO* (Fear Of Missing Out), often paired in the world of finance with FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). And on and on.

Not forgetting JOMO, the Joy Of Missing Out (I didn’t want to go to that party anyway) and NEMO, Nearly but not fully Missing Out (I went, scored some weed, but came home early because it was a drag).

(I just learned that STP stands for Scientifically Treated Petroleum.)

Some acronyms are really mnenomics, ways of remembering, oh, the names of the Great Lakes (HOMES) or colors of the spectrum (ROYGBIV) or treble clef notes (FACE) or treatment for a sprain (RICE = Rest + Ice + Compress + Elevate). Others just arise naturally: Agnetha, Björn, Benny, Anni-Frid. OK, strictly, that’s an ambigram, the way they used it.

Does CSNY count?

If you’re a purist (AKA pedant), you’re careful not to confuse an acronym with an initialism. So SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) and NASA are true acronyms, while the FBI, CIA and NSA are initialisms — that is, they aren’t made into a single word, but retain their individual letters.

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What about lists that don’t lend themselves to acronyms or easy-to-remember gimmicks? Paddling my kayak around Eureka’s two marinas, I always check out the names of the boats, as I try – unsuccessfully, to date — to recall Dylan Thomas’ evocation of the boats in the harbor of his home in Laugharne, South Wales (“where they quarrel with boathooks”), fictionalized as Llareggub in Under Milk Wood. He lists the boats’ names as they “tilt and ride” in “the black, dab-filled sea”: Arethusa, the Curlew and the Skylark, Zanzibar, Rhiannon, the Rover, the Cormorant and the Star of Wales. Oh to come up with a mnemonic to remember those lyrical labels, when all I’ve got is ACSZRRCS.

And speaking of ROYGBIV, how do the cast members of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat remember those hues, absent some trick of memory?

It was red and yellow and green and brown
And scarlet and black and ochre and peach
And ruby and olive and violet and fawn
And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve
And cream and crimson and silver and rose
And azure and lemon and russet and grey 
And purple and white and pink and orange
And red and yellow and green and brown
And blue!

Yeah, I know. SHINFO.