Metatalktail Hour: Easy as 123? January 7, 2023 2:54 AM   Subscribe

Happy weekend, everyone, and happy 2023! For today's metatalktail topic, I was thinking that as a system of characters representing phonemes, I believe we can all agree that the Alphabet has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more ... so maybe we can do an alphabet checklist for Metafilter? I think we have "M" safely covered, and "A" is surely for "Ask Me," but what about "B"? Best Of? Brand New Day? "C"? ...

Can we do a whole set? What are the ABCs of Mefi?

A is for Ask Metafilter and all the Advice we love to give,
B is for a Brand New Day, another mefite life to live
C ...

OR, just talk about what's happening in your life, what you've been doing, what's been on your mind. (But remember, P is for the thing we don't talk about here, even if it does sometimes inspire a topic theme!)
posted by taz (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 2:54 AM (43 comments total)

B is for beanplating
C is for crouton petting
D is for DTMFA
E is for eponysterical
F is for Filter I guess (I bet someone can improve on this)
G could be for Grauniad, specifically endless debates over that nickname - but I'm hoping someone else will come up with a better one
Q could be for quidnunc kid, #1
R is for RTMFA
S is for the perennial "surely this"
If I were vain I'd say T is for Tehhunding, but instead T is for This is just to say...
Y is for Yes, the whole man.
posted by Tehhund at 4:14 AM on January 7, 2023 [9 favorites]


A is for Alphabet thread
Z is for Zamboni!
posted by zamboni at 4:15 AM on January 7, 2023 [3 favorites]


H is for hamburger, or hurf durf
I is for "is this something I would need a television to have heard of?"
P is for pony or Pepsi Blue
S might also be for "same as in town."
T is for "there is no cabal"

In unrelated news, I managed to work up the courage to ask a very dear friend if they were interested in dating. Over many years, I've learned how to do that with casual friends and near-strangers, but saying it to your best friend is a whole lot harder, both because of worry it will make them uncomfortable and because of the risk of screwing up a genuine and valued friendship. (The answer was, "not now," which isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but our friendship seems unharmed; the frank and open discussion was refreshing.)
posted by eotvos at 4:53 AM on January 7, 2023 [10 favorites]


Actually. Tehund's "T is for This is just to say" is better than mine. I withdraw my suggestion.
posted by eotvos at 5:03 AM on January 7, 2023 [5 favorites]


F is for Fizz!!

I'll share the rest of the letters with the community I've found here and all the memories. They're good ones.
posted by Fizz at 7:30 AM on January 7, 2023


J is for our Fearless Leader Jessamyn
posted by drlith at 7:54 AM on January 7, 2023 [6 favorites]


C is on my list as "cat-scanning" but see Y.
D: DTMFA -- Ask Mefi's "Down To Make Future Acquaintances" (I kid, it's Dump That MF A-hole)
F: Free Thread
L: librarians (shush, there is no librarian cabal conspiracy)
Y: YMMV preferred over 'yuck in someone else's yum'
posted by k3ninho at 7:57 AM on January 7, 2023 [3 favorites]


V is vote for #1 Quidnunc Kid
Q is for Quonsar
posted by mightshould at 8:19 AM on January 7, 2023 [4 favorites]


C is going to be a problem, isn't it? Because we have Crouton petting and Cat scanning, but there's also "Can I eat this?" to consider.
posted by taz (staff) at 8:23 AM on January 7, 2023 [7 favorites]


G is for “go to the ER”
posted by obfuscation at 8:58 AM on January 7, 2023 [4 favorites]


F is for Filter FTFY
posted by essexjan at 9:44 AM on January 7, 2023 [7 favorites]


J is for Jingle Rock Bell

T is for Therapy
posted by essexjan at 9:46 AM on January 7, 2023 [4 favorites]


H is also for hoppita moppita.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:51 AM on January 7, 2023


X is for "the result of D"
posted by lalochezia at 10:09 AM on January 7, 2023


A is for Apple
J is for Jacks
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:49 AM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]


P is for:

.
posted by Mngo at 11:00 AM on January 7, 2023 [3 favorites]


I is for IRL
posted by Mngo at 11:01 AM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]


F is also for First be smart from the very beginning...
W is for Welcome to Flavortown

(But remember, P is for the thing we don't talk about here, even if it does sometimes inspire a topic theme!)

Phil Collins?
posted by mubba at 12:46 PM on January 7, 2023 [3 favorites]


C is going to be a problem, isn't it?

Cameras, which we have.
posted by zamboni at 2:13 PM on January 7, 2023 [2 favorites]


Cabal, of which there is none.
posted by blurker at 2:21 PM on January 7, 2023 [3 favorites]


Comedy, of which I have none.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:26 PM on January 7, 2023


V is for Valentine card exchange. All are welcome. If you haven’t signed up, come and spread some love.
posted by SunPower at 3:32 PM on January 7, 2023 [4 favorites]


While L for librarian warms my heart, I'd like to pitch L is for Longboat.
posted by box at 3:55 PM on January 7, 2023 [4 favorites]


S - Should I Eat This?
posted by Sparky Buttons at 4:17 PM on January 7, 2023 [4 favorites]


B is for bold
I is for italics
L is for link
posted by waving at 6:54 PM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]


R is also, always and forever, for rtha.
posted by kristi at 7:05 PM on January 7, 2023 [11 favorites]


C is for Cortex.
posted by Oyéah at 7:38 PM on January 7, 2023 [4 favorites]


C is for Cabal.
C is for, can I eat this?
posted by Oyéah at 7:39 PM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]


I, is for U
posted by clavdivs at 8:56 PM on January 7, 2023 [2 favorites]


P is for plums, cold and sweet.
posted by Gorgik at 1:35 AM on January 8, 2023 [4 favorites]


Not playing because I just recently had to ask someone what NATO phonetic was for Q. It seems to have been a while for me.
posted by pompomtom at 5:39 AM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]


On the other hand, O is for OP
posted by janell at 10:09 AM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]


S is for same as in town.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 1:08 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


M is for more inside
posted by mochapickle at 1:43 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


W is also for "We've got cameras"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:33 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


Not playing because I just recently had to ask someone what NATO phonetic was for Q. It seems to have been a while for me.

I used to keep the NATO alphabet printed out and taped above my work phone.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:41 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


I did the same thing at a job where I had to call 911 a lot--it's an easy way to occasionally gain a little cred with cops.
posted by box at 3:54 PM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]


It's fun to memorize! Anyone who has ever gone on a road trip with me gets to learn the NATO alphabet. It's great for long stretches of highway.

Also weirdly good for road trips: memorizing Robert Frost's Walking Through Woods On A Snowy Evening.
posted by mochapickle at 4:14 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]


I have a coworker who would use a phonetic alphabet when working with people over the phone, and I swear she was just making up each letter as she went, and would change it up on the fly. It drove me bonkers.
posted by Gorgik at 8:38 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I used to keep the NATO alphabet printed out and taped above my work phone.
It's been decades, but my ham radio training still kicks in often. Every time I spell my name on the phone and have it read back to me, I have to stifle the urge to correct "frank" to "foxtrot." It's not the receptionists' fault, but it's deeply weird to hear a mix of standard and non-standard letters.
posted by eotvos at 8:45 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]


I have a coworker who would use a phonetic alphabet when working with people over the phone, and I swear she was just making up each letter as she went, and would change it up on the fly. It drove me bonkers.

That's why I printed out the NATO version. I could never seem to memorize it well enough to call up the right words under pressure, and I was sick of improvising. "Uh, that's E as in... er, Elevator, (shoot, what if they say "lift" in that country?) oh, wait, I mean, E as in Eeeeeeeeeelephant? Yeah, E as in Elephant!" So I really needed the visual aid.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:38 PM on January 8, 2023


A is for AskMe, for the answers we get
B is for the Blue where we post our links
C is for Croutons, which we love to pet
D is for DTMFA, your partner stinks.

E is for Eponysterical, the account name is risible
F is for Flameout, a departure quite pyrrhic
G is for Grar, when anger's made visible
H is for Hamburger, we're being satiric.

I is for Inside, when there's More to the post
J is for Jessamyn, we're glad someone's in charge
K is for KCOL SPAC, WE MAKE SALMON FOR TOAST
L is for Longboat, when a thread gets quite large.

M is for Music, the cool sonic scene
N is for New Post, out with the old
O is for Overthinking a whole plate of beans
P is for Plums, so sweet and so cold.

Q is for Quidnunc Kid, vote #1
R is for rtha, and all other dots
S is for Schmoopy, for niceness and fun
T is for Therapy, we need a whole lot.

U is for #uspolitics, threads long and meaty,
V is for Viking, a metaphorical/literal rift,
W is for Westphalia, they have a treaty,
X is for Xchanges, where we all swap gifts.
Y is for You, making MeFi much greater,
Z is for Zamboni, the perpetrator.
posted by zamboni at 6:09 PM on January 9, 2023 [20 favorites]


Bravissimo!
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:17 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]


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