RE: Toob vs. Tube

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Rich" <rdjmgmt-at-socket-dot-net> 

  Thanks Matt
	Well I am also a amateur radio operator and we have our own
words and short cuts left over from the cw code days.

73's  KD0ZZ
      Rich

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 6:14 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Toob vs. Tube

Original poster: Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com

In a message dated 9/13/04 9:57:11 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:
Original poster: "Rich" <rdjmgmt-at-socket-dot-net>

Ok guys I know I cant spell but where did toob come from. I also know I
am
getting too old as I have retired and want to try a tube coil with some
of
my 304TL's and 4-1000A's .

Rich

Hi Rich,
      The first reference to "Toob" that I could find in print was in
early
'70s. It was a brand name for a personal floatation device that looked
like
an inner-tube (remember those?). About the same time, the mangled
spelling
was used for symmetry in the expression "boob-toob" in reference to what

was then perceived as the low-quality idiotic TV fare. High quality
compared to today's offerings, but that's another matter.
      The use of it in reference to electronic devices has developed over

the last 10 years or so is a result of the first commandment of younger
Internet users:
      "Shout it out loud, I'm illiterate and I'm proud."
      I believe that the following is a reasonable theory of its origins.

When the telephone replaced the letter as the primary form of personal
communication, a generation arose that did not need to spell in most of
their daily activities. Also at this time, advertising using
mangled-spelling brand-names saturated the TV markets. When the children
of
the non-writing generation shanghaied the Internet from its academic
origins, they could either rediscover the arcane arts of their
grandparents
(spelling, grammar, punctuation) or turn their mistakes and/or ignorance

into badges of honor. Most have consciously or unconsciously opted for
the
latter. Like many minority cultures, they have adopted a form of Aesop's

"sour grapes story" i.e. "What we lack (or are denied) we define as
culturally undesirable"
      Other points to consider:
      In many countries outside the US, engineers, unless they have
undertaken additional studies, have always been considered highly
trained
but not educated people.
      Spelling in the English language is only a few hundred years old.
Prior to the mid-1700's, the reasonably literate but mostly uneducated
population was not large enough for standardized spelling of words in
the
secular language to be necessary for communication. (In western
civilization, the priesthood and the "learned professions" all used
Latin,
which had, had fairly fixed spelling for centuries).

      Thus endeth the tirade for today,

Matt D.
(and for those so inclined, Gut Yontiff or Chag Sameyach)