Saturday, October 18, 2008

I'll bet we'll be hearing this a lot in the financial reports...

I first encountered the term snafu during my early years as a financial transcriptionist and has only heard it used twice in my more than 5 years of listening to transcripts (it was used as a verb).  It stuck on my mind because I had to google with different sound-likes and key word combinations in order to come out with the right one.  

I have a feeling that we'll get to hear this more often, with the world economy at the brink of collapse. ...


SNAFU is an acronym meaning roughly, "things are in a mess — as usual". The most commonly accepted rendering is "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up". In computer jargon, it sometimes is intended to mean "Systems Neatly All Fucked Up". It is sometimes bowdlerized to "Situation Normal: All Fouled Up" or similar,[1] in circumstances where profanity is discouraged or censored. In modern usage, "snafu" is often used as an interjection, as a shorthand for the sentiment expressed by the phrase. "Snafu" is also sometimes used as a noun or verb, referring to a situation that suddenly went awry, or the cause of the trouble. The acronym is believed to have originated in the US Army during World War II.

Source: Wiki

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