GLOATs, SLOATs, and BLOATs: LMFAO!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The creation of acronyms, a type of shorthand for remembering complex terminology by abbreviating it into initials that form a shorter word or term - something easier to remember - is not a new phenomenon, and, in fact, when I was in the United States Army more than fifty years ago, we were given a manual of a couple of hundred pages listing acronyms that had been especially created  to meet the army's needs.  The other branches of service had their own manuals stuffed with their own acronyms.  Some of the military acronomyms managed to make it beyond the call of duty and into the public domain, ones we all know like ASAP, AWOL, and MIA.

Today the process has evolved, and a whole generation of internet users seem to be able to get by using little more than just acronyms.  PIN, NSFW, LOL, ICYMI, YOLO,  and ROTFL are but a few examples of internet speech.   Creating memorable acronyms has almost become a contemporary art form, and anyone lacking the skills to readily translate strings of words to acronyms and back again can soon find themselves SOL when it comes to communicating over the internet.

A couple of new ones (at least new to me) surfaced last week during the closing arguments in the New York "hush money" trial of Donald Trump, the trial in which he was unanimously convicted of 34 felony counts by a jury of his peers.  Trump, who famously hires only the "best" people, sat by listening smugly as his current attorney, Todd Blanche, referred to Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney and a witness against Trump in that trial, as a GLOAT (greatest liar of all time).

Cohen, Trump's former lawyer who admitted paying off a porn star so she would not interfere in Trump's 2016 presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton, later shot back at the clever Mr. Blanche and referred to him as a SLOAT (stupidest lawyer of all time).

I also noted a bit of commentary on the internet in which Trump was referred to as a BLOAT (biggest liar of all time) and there is now some Trump BLOAT (biggest loser of all time) merchandise being sold on Amazon.  Trump BLOAT apparel probably should not be worn with MAGA caps because the sight of it would surely cause me to be ROTFLMFAO!

TGIF!