I think you need the tiara.

if an abbreviation isn't used 5 or more times, we spell out the term

Ooh, I am very interested in this as a rule of thumb, but hadn't thought about it that explicitly. The number of acronyms and initialisms we use makes me CRAZY.

Not in publications, but the theatre artistic director makes all these schedules and documents, and he abbreviates EVERYTHING to the point that I can hardly read it. And he abbreviates weirdly, so he will say on X date there will be a meeting which will be attended by Dir.'s, Des. Mtr, TD, PM, PSM, SSM, AAVE, COstume Designers, Props Master, MST Electrician.

It DRIVES ME BATTY!

He also once created an abbreivation for the role "Senior Special Stage Management Mentor) that involved super scripts S(3)M(2).

That dress is perfect cocktail attire.

They're not online, they exchange handwritten letters.

OMG Tom, I love you.

Steph I would totes wear that as cocktail attire, but my closet has a dearth of actual cocktail dresses. In my head, anything that aims towards the classic LBD in either style or color would do.

I have just discovered a weird skin thing on my collarbone. Thanks to the basal cell carcinoma I had removed last year, I am mildly worried that it is skin cancer. Again.

I agree with -t completely. That is a smashing cocktail dress!

Excellent! I am ready for the wedding! (Seriously, this sounds fancy and HUGE -- the reception is at the convention center. Yowza!)

if an abbreviation isn't used 5 or more times, we spell out the term

Ooh, I am very interested in this as a rule of thumb, but hadn't thought about it that explicitly. The number of acronyms and initialisms we use makes me CRAZY.

That's the reason we do it -- there can be so many abbreviations in medical stuff that we had to set a rule for when they can be used (i.e., only if it's 5 or more times), because otherwise the articles turn into alphabet soup.

Burrell, how soon can you get it checked? I ask as someone for whom mole removal gets classified as medically necessary due to family history. There are tons of other weird skin things it could be, and I hope that this is one of them. But I hope you get peace of mind quickly.

Is it only legal documents where they use defined terms?

The relevant facts and particulars are set forth in the affidavit (the “Lender Affidavit”) of ___________________, the ____________ of Puppy Group Companies Inc. (“Puppy”), and the Motion by Puppy for an Order: (i) dismissing this case, or (ii) alternatively, granting relief from the automatic stay, and (iii) granting related relief (the “Motion”), filed simultaneously herewith and as otherwise set forth herein.

They're very handy.

Man, you can tell it's going to be a long day when I'm already typing notes to authors like "This is not our journal's style you special fucking snowflake, and if you read our author guidelines or even one article in the journal you would know that you ridiculous demandy jerk!"

Steph, I get authors like that constantly. People who have clearly never read an issue of the journal they're submitting to, and have also clearly not read any of the instructions. People who mark every single instance of the thing they want changed. People who insist on changes I've already said a polite and professional "no" to.

Now I'm dealing with an author who sent back an Approval to Publish, and a day later popped up with, "my coauthor has changes to make too! Here!" Uh, okay, those are small changes. And then, "we must revise this figure! the coordinates are wrong!" Oh, fine, that's important, I'll change it. And THEN, "we forgot to include acknowledgment of financial support! We MUST do that or lose our funding! You MUST make this change also!" Oh, frigg, man, you've had this paper in process for TWO YEARS and you didn't notice any of this stuff until AFTER you signed off on publication? What the hell? How about finishing writing the paper before you submit it? How about READING the paper before you submit it? And then get mad at ME for saying NO MORE CHANGES, way past deadline. Ass.

It was a full moon last Thursday. (In the public library world, we note these; they seem to correspond with higher than usual levels of crazy.)

In emergency rooms and hospitals, too, I've heard. When I worked (briefly) in crisis support, my co-workers insisted that full moons were always worse. Scientists say it's confirmation bias, but if enough people say a thing is happening, I tend to think there's something to it.

WHY MUST YOUR HOUSE STYLE BE SO FIDDLY AND HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER IT

It's fiddly because we have to cover every single possible instance of a thing! And also because my nutcase boss wrote it! And you're not supposed to remember it, that's my job! WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER.

However, I think our style is not as fiddly as Steph's.

We've revised the style manual twice since I started there. The original one was based on Chicago, then revised heavily by a nitpicky Hellbeast of a managing editor based on what she thought looked good. After she left and we were done partying and drinking to erase her memory, we revised it back to Chicago-based. Then after many tussles over style that didn't make so much sense in an engineering context (The Great Hyphen Debate) we revised it again. By now, every journal has its own quirks, and some parts of style are tweakable and some are not. My boss is trying very hard to reign in all this mad individuality, and the editors are trying hard to make our jobs easier.

like, if an abbreviation isn't used 5 or more times, we spell out the term

Madness! We spell it out on first occurance with the abbreviation in parens and then use the abbreviation after that. Much easier. The articles do tend to turn into alphabet soup, but engineers seem to like that. Efficiency, maybe.

That's a great cocktail dress, Steph!