I MUCH prefer Edward Gorey: A is for Amy who fell down the stairs....
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MJ Walker
Sent: Wednesday, 13 September 2006 2:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: on a lighter note
It's called the German telephone alphabet in Germany. It started in 1890
with numbers for letters, so Maier would be 13, 1, 9, 5, 18, then in
1903 they introduced the mnemotechnically superior name alphabet, i.e.
Martha, Anton, Ida, Emil, Richard. There was a big to-do during the
1000-year Reich, when eager Nazis wrote in to point out that names like
David (which became Dora) were absolutely nicht angesagt - and Ypsilon
had to be called Ypern (Ypres); this was partly revised after the war;
the military still tries hard to introduce its own version. I never
heard of anyone ever doing this in England when I was a boy.
mj
Mark Weiss wrote:
> Carlos, my grownup, just got off the phone with Air India, which he
> had called to reconfirm his flight. The Indian woman on the other end
> didn't understand the spelling of his name, and he tried the usual "b
> for boy," which didn't work. I suggested that next time he's
> confronted with a similar situation he should try for something
> familiar to the other party, as in "B for Babu, L for Lakshmi, A for
> Aruna," etc. It occurred to me that I have no idea what this use of
> names for spelling is called, and I'm sure it has a name. Any wisdom
> on this?
>
> Mark
>
--
One must be prepared for a piece of music which is laden with symbols:
bells, Poltergeist knocks and grotesque figues. Kasper Rofelt.
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