MSM. was Re: TMI

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:22 AM -0500 10/25/09, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>MSM? Hey, that's the former name of my institution (Missouri School
>of Mines, which in the 1960s became University of Missouri-Rolla,
>which two years ago became Missouri University of Science and
>Technology).
>
>The old alumni never did get over the change of name of their
>beloved MSM.  I'm still having withdrawal symptoms from UMR.
>
>Gerald Cohen

MSM is also the standard label for "men who have sex with men" or
"males who have sex with males", a cover term used by those dealing
with HIV/AIDS and other STDs (it focuses on the relevant behavioral
component, what one does, as opposed to the self-identificational
component, who one is, that's irrelevant in the medical context).  I
keep doing a double take when I pass a bottle in our medicine shelf
labeled "Glucosamine Sulfate with MSM for Healthy Joints", where the
reference is neither to men who have sex with men, nor to the
mainstream media, nor to the Missouri School of Mines, which I didn't
even know was an option.

LH, wondering if Fox and friends are aware of the sexual reading of
their initialism for the mainstream media--essentially picking out
any source to the left of Attila--and revel in it.

>
>________________________________
>
>Original message from Jonathan Lighter, Sun 10/25/2009 9:30 AM:
>
>CNN asks this AM whether some politician is "giving us a bad case of TMI."
>
>That means "too much (disagreeable or distasteful) information."
>Nearly 100,000 RGs.
>
>Guests on the same show also spoke without explication of "the MSM."  That
>means "the mainstream media," i.e., anything  other than the blogosphere and
>Fox News, the marketers who popularized the phrase "mainstream media."
>
>"MSM": Three and a half millions RGs.
>
>JL
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org