Do you prefer anagrams or acronyms, and why?
Acronyms are evil, vile concoctions, created soley for the purpose of differentiating the INSIDERS from the outsiders. Merriam-Webster tells me that the word itself originates from the year 1943 C.E., and gives me examples of RADAR and SNAFU. While the original idea of the acronym might have been ok, the sheer proliferation of these "words" is ludicrous. We live in a world where the guild system is being perpeptuated by words - THAT ARE NOT EVEN WORDS!
As a medical student, I am being socialized into a world where acronyms are taken for granted, and even used as a cudgel to keep patients from knowing what is going on. As a third year student I might be expected to take care of a patient who has had a MVA after suffering a CVA, secondary to a thrombus in the LCA. I will be expected to r/o a MI by ordering a CT (or perhaps a MRI), all the while trying to contact the patient's PCP, HMO, and SO.
However, I don't much like anagrams either.