opie teepee

Words, acronyms, and abbreviations are great, and provide some good humor when slightly confused.

I often travel with an occupational therapist, and we get labelled OTPT. Recently we were recorded on a school calendar as OPTP. Out-patient toilet paper? old-phashioned travelling people? Ordinary practical trading practises?

My brother's blackberry (or crack-berry as we liked to call it) became a blueberry.

Fiddleheads, in the mind of a 4-year-old, became piano-heads.

Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy were three little girls who spent their entire lives chasing David. As a little kid, I thought about that one for a long time before asking my mom what she thought Shirley might have been wearing. I thought it sounded like a very exhausting life for all of them.

I read about nectarines being placed during a surgical procedure. It took me a while to realize they were supposed to be "neck drains." Many doctors have terrible hand-writing. They also mumble when they do dictation.

I was out for dinner with some elderly friends a few years ago. One ordered ceasar salad. Another lady shrieked across the table "What's that dear? Did you say you're having a seizure?"

It all gives me much more respect and admiration for those who transplant themselves, in their adult lives, into an english-speaking country and go about learning the language.