Acronyms Where They Don't Belong
My brother just asked me in an email why some people write "SPAM" as if it was an acronym. A lot of people think it's an acronym. The term spam actually comes from the Monty Python skit "Spam, spam, spam, spam" - basically the word spam repeated ad infinitum. The idea being that's what email spam is - meaningless repetition.
It's like the utility "ping" - somewhere along the line, Cisco tried to tell people that it was Packet INternet Grouper. That's not it at all. "ping" came from the noise a sonar device makes - the analogy was the same as sonar - sending a ping to find out if something was out there.