Herewith some Word Fugitives responses I wish I'd had space for in the January/February issue of the magazine. What they were in response to was this:
Michael McWatters, of New York City, writes, "I use a computer for the better part of my waking life, and I've noticed that certain repetitive keyboard tasks are making their way into my non-computer life. For example, I recently knocked a jar off the counter, and a little voice inside yelped, 'Command-Z!' (the keyboard shortcut for Undo). Ditto for the time I accidentally ripped a page in a book. A friend mentioned that she recently lost her keys and thought, 'Command-F' (Find). There should be a term for this confusion, as it's only going to become more common."
Posted by mark: but have you tried to unlock your front door with the carkey clicker?
Posted by Jill: The one I want to use is the "insert" function--as in, "insert about three more hours into the day" without impacting normal needs like sleep, food etc.
Alyssa Smith, of Dulles, VA: With those Command Fs and Command Zs, Michael McWatters is, of course, referring to his "interior macrologue."
Jeff Reed, of Wilmington, DE: Because the user needs to resort to the "F" or "Function" keys on the keyboard, it might be that "Functional Iteracy" would do. Or because it's written form is a new notational language, it might be "Keyculus" (after the notation developed by Newton now known as calculus). But, because you need to be wired to both understand and use the new notation, perhaps it's just "geekspeak."
