BM's and AMD's

Years ago, IBM used acronyms for everything, even when there were industry-standard names for the same things.

Of course, IBM isn't alone in this; even today, if you're talking communications protocols, ATM doesn't mean Automated Teller Machine, it's asynchronous transfer mode.

For that matter, an SST is a supersonic transport, or, conveniently, a self- service terminal like an ATM.

So IBM came up with an acronym for a fan. Yes, a fan. Already three characters, but IBM chose to call a fan an AMD. An Air Movement Device.

And though excrement can be referred to as [expletive deleted], it's also known as BM, or bowel movement.

So when something really goes awry, you can bet the BM will hit the AMD!