Cool, AIDS!

There's nothing funny about AIDS. Or puns with the acronym AIDS in them. AIDS, actually, is not an acronym at all, since it is just a word spelled by extracting only those letters from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome that spell a word. As immunodeficiency is not two words, you can't just select the "d" as part of the acronym; but I guess "AIS" isn't pronounceable. The point is, true acronyms don't include letters chosen for their expediency (nor are the words in them superfluous. So, for example, including extra words just so the initials will spell something is to make faux-acronyms, as is taking the beginning of two or more words and capitalizing them to make an "acronym" word. You listening, COINTELPRO? COMSAT? Finally, initials that don't make a word, like NSC, WAARFG, and the like, are not technically acronyms; they are merely initialisms.).

That all has nothing to do with this post. The UIC history department was going to sponsor a brown bag talk last Wednesday on the subject of AIDS and the history of AIDS research funding, 1987-present. I think the talk was cancelled, probably, because somebody realized that 1987 to the present isn't part of "history," but rather is what we refer to as "recent memory" or, in the case of the present, "today."

I would like to give a talk called "The history of today, starring tomorrow."