Over and Out

I received a call at work today and I had to take the guy's information. Now normally, when people need to spell names or email addresses out and there are letters that might be confusing, they'll say something like, "S as in Sam, M as in Mary..." things like that. So this is the exact conversation that took place between me and this caller:

Me: Okay, can I get your email address?

Guy: Yeah, sure. It's Charlie...

Me (thinking): Hmm, his name isn't Charlie... maybe it's some kind of nickname.

Guy: Bravo...

Me (thinking): Huh... that's an interesting email address...

Guy: Uniform....

Me (thinking): Okay, what the hell is this...

Guy: Romeo...

Me (thinking): ...... wow.....

In case you haven't figure it out by now, the guy was spelling his email out using MILITARY PHONETICS. If you don't know what that is, here's the Wikipedia entry under its official title, the ICAO spelling alphabet. You've seen it before, though, probably in war movies. You know, the soldiers get on their radios and say something like, "Bravo, Charlie, Delta," or whatever.

So for some reason, this guy decided that he couldn't just spell his name like a normal person and just say the actual letters. Mind you, as Wikipedia points out, "The paramount reason [for the ICAO spelling alphabet] is to ensure intelligibility of voice signals over radio links." Basically, it's to make sure that there are no mix-ups in radio conversations, especially during combat situations.

Okay, so let's calm down, G.I. Joe. You're calling me from your office building to my office building. This isn't Iraq and you're not exactly calling me in for a missile strike on an enemy target. In fact, when you started saying all the Bravo, Charlie, Uniform crap, it just confused me even more because I had to think wayyyy more about it to the point that I didn't even get your email address! But it's moments like these that make me that much more grateful that it's Friday.

Happy weekend, everyone.