Thursday, December 20, 2012

The Funny Side of PTL



There is a certain Internet acronym called:

PTL

This fun, little guy is short for something very, very serious among us religious folk.
It means:

PRAISE THE LORD

But for the life of me, I can never seem to remember this when I run across it in an email or FB post. Instead, my mind translates it to mean:

PAIN IN THE ASS

Now, you may think that such a flub would result in endless laughter and hilarity! Because when your brain translates PTL to mean “pain in the ass,” what could possibly be funnier than reading:

Henry is out of the hospital, PTL, and back home!

Or:

PTL!! My in-laws made it here in time for Christmas!!!

Or:

PTL Amy is going to be assisting me at work!

But eventually, it gets annoying. Because there are some people that just PTL all over the place. It’s PTL this and PTL that, and despite my attempts to consciously switch the term to mean the RIGHT thing in my brain, there's no hope for the misread connotation. It sticks with me and refuses to change to the positive and hopeful. So in a nutshell, an email or note of extreme YAY-JESUS celebration becomes one, gigantic piece of angry that annoys me to death.

In other words, the PTLs still become PITAs.

And I’m back where I started.




1 comment:

  1. Now that you mention it, Amanda, ily makes me feel more ill than loved. i didn't know what it meant for the longest. So I just ass-umed it meant someone was about to puke or had a fever or just felt generally ill-ish. So I get that. This one I'm gonna have to cyber-five you on. B/c I never use PTL *Too cheesy corney for my stlye and if I want to tell I love you, I so prefer the <3 that rotates 90 degrees and fills in red. That always makes me happy! :) Merry Christmas! -raj

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