A Call for Abbreviation Standardization

The question was, " What does 'T' stand for?"

Charlie had called, a bit embarrassed mind you, because he had been staring at a business card for the past five minutes and couldn't figure out what "T" stood for.

He said, " I know that "F" stands for fax and "C" stands for cell, but what is "T"? Is  that some kind of special PDA ? He was searching his brain to de-crypt the code. He came up short.

Charlie is obvious a "P" kinda guy because the "T" obviously stands for telephone. Charlie is one of those  folks who never calls it a telephone but rather a phone.  He also doesn't call it an automobile but rather a car.

Since he calls it a  phone, when he was faced with the "T" where he thought a "P" should be, he obviously had a brain fart. His brain simply couldn't decipher the code.

It's no wonder. Some people call it an "M' rather than a "C". Is that a regional deal? Most folks here in MInneapolis call it a cell, but there seems to be a crowd that calls it "my mobile."

Since this business card confusion came to my attention, I've noticed that we are in dire need of Abbreviation Standardization.

To substantiate, I took a random pile of business cards from my collection. There is absolutely no consistency whatsoever.

The top card on the pile  was from a health care organization. It has one phone number, in bold, no abbreviation.However, in the right hand column it has a second phone number and in lower case type the word "fax" follows the number.

Personally,  I prefer to have these designations precede the number.

The next card is from a financial advisor. His card has two BUS designations: ( one is toll free)

Next up is  a card for a woman who is an energy and health guide, sacred artist massage, alternatives for healing. She has two numbers on the card. No designations.

An independent consultant's card writes out  the words phone and fax. However, it turns out the number for the phone is actually her mobile which she keeps in her coat and rarely hears.

Next up ,another corporate card. This one uses the designaion TEL and  FAX before the numbers

Finally another independent whose card  simply reads: Office and Cell.

Now my friend Charlie got into trouble because the card he was staring out used the very graphically hip approach of one letter abbreviations.

The thing is  there are so many choices.

The T could have as easily been L. O, B or P

and the C could have been M,MO, P, W or B

Scroll down for code.

TGIF.

Code: L= Land Line. O=Office.B=business. P=Phone. M=Mobile.mo =mobile office.P =PDA, W= Wireless. B =Blackberry

Note: Charlie is a pseudonym. The conversation did take place on my w,b, c,m or mo depending on your abbreviation preference.