17 May 2005

The craziest acronym

I've seen in a while: COLLAPSE (Corrosion of Lead and Lead-Tin Alloys of Organ Pipes in Europe).

COLLAPSE is a "research project formed when a mysterious corrosion began appearing in the hollow cylinders of some of Europe's oldest and most venerable" pipe organs.

What I find mysterious is that while the "o" of an unimportant word, "of," gets picked up into the acronym, the "o" of an important (capitalized, even!) word, "organ," does not. In fairness to all the words, shouldn't it be COLALTAOOPIE?

From Newsweek

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