Re: Technical writer/engineer nightmares

[Ad absurdum per aspera <JTCHEW -at- LBL -dot- GOV>]

In article <931022135559 -dot- 21a01a69 -at- ALPHA -dot- SUNQUEST -dot- COM>,
DLE -at- alpha -dot- sunquest -dot- com wrote:

> Aw, c'mon Joe...you surely can't expect to mention accelerator and fusion
> research and armadillo in the same sentence and not tell us why ...

Okay, okay...

The request came from a scientist who works on proton beam therapy
for cancer.  The SSC (RIP as of yesterday, sadly) has a proton
linac that could be used for therapy during the several-hour stretches
of idletime between fillings of the injection chain and thence the
main collider rings.  The group looking into this spinoff application
wanted a clever acronym, preferably one that incorporated "SSC."

This defeated me and the other wiseacres who were trying to assist,
but I did come up with PRONTO-SSC (Proton Radiotherapy and Oncology
in Normal Technical Operation of the Superconducting Super Collider).

Too straight.  So after brainstorming several other things related
to Texas that didn't work out, and starting to get well into my
typically reverent attitude,  I advanced ARMADILLO (Accelerator
Radiotherapy and Medical Applications During Idletime on the Long
Linac's Output). To my horror, he has been using this at meetings
to soften up the audience.  Now that the SSC has been scuttled, the
effort has been refocused on Fermilab, and the acronym has been
tweaked to Accelerator for Radiobiology and Medical Applications
Developed for Idletime in the Long Linac's Operation.

Complete with drawing of armadillo on the standard title vugraf.
I guess that if the SSC folks wanted to give the Final Gesture of
Defiance they could make a version with treadmarks across the
armadillo.

Your tax dollars at work,

--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"
Disclaimer: Even if my employer had a position on the subject,
I probably wouldn't be the one stating it on their behalf.