Tis The Season

(Originally posted 2015-12-22.)

I can cope with both “zee” and “zed”. [1]

I love the myriad ways of pronouncing “CICS”.

I can even detect such things as “Day Bay Tway” when I hear them.

But there are a couple of things that I’m slightly bemused by:

• People saying “zee-oss” or “zed-oss” or “zoss”.
• People calling WLM “Willem”.

I wonder if it’s a more modern version of what I’d call “Amdahl Coffee Mug Syndrome”…

When I first started at IBM customers used to goad IBMers by offering them coffee in an Amdahl mug. I don’t know how we were supposed to react but I’d just say “thank you very much” and accept the coffee. No point in being goaded.

I actually try to pronounce everything right – even at the risk of sounding like a poseur. Even competitive products. And certainly the names of people.

I’d encourage everybody to do the same.

And with that brain dump of misanthropy 🙂 into my phone on the last flight home I’ll take this year (back from Istanbul – where the people are friendly and the beer’s the beer) 🙂 …

I’ll wish everyone Happy Holidays!

Or, if you prefer…

Bah[2] Humbug! 🙂