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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 April 24

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April 24

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Certain action makes the text frozen and uneditable in a MS Word document.

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Moved to the Computing section of the desk. --Lambiam 06:06, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

U.S. abbreviations

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Hi. Why is US Mission to the UN abbreviated as USUN, Mission to ASEAN USASEAN, and USEU and USAU? Where are the Ms? Thank you. Imagine Reason (talk) 11:51, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Concision (also called "conciseness", "succinctness", "brevity", or "laconicism") is a communication principle of eliminating redundancy. Alansplodge (talk) 12:07, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
During WW2, the U.S. Navy was notorious for having an extremely elaborate (and inconsistent) system of abbrevations ("CinCPac" for Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Fleet was only the beginning). You can read some of them here... -- AnonMoos (talk) 15:53, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The Russians have to be different, and delight in oxymoronically long abbreviations. The record-breaker, according to Guinness, is:
  • NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT (Russian: Нииомтплабопармбетжелбетрабсбомонимонконотдтехстромонт).
Methinks this "abbreviation" (which refers to The Laboratory for Reinforcement, Concrete and Ferroconcrete Operations, for Composite-monolithic and Monolithic Constructions, of the Department of the Technology of Building-Assembly Operations, of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for Mechanization and Technical Aid) needs its own abbreviation. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 20:26, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

We Shall Overcome

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Was the Lucille Simmons who sang We Shall Overcome in the 1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike related to Lucille Whipper, née Simmons, who was the first Black woman to represent a Charleston County seat in the South Carolina legislature? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 22:15, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Or at least this forward to a book about the song refers to Lucille Simmons Whipper (1928-2021) and the cigar strike. --jpgordon𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇 22:56, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]