A Dave Fun Quiz: Greeting Card Theme Codes
I'm looking over my greeting-card-days memoir today, and it struck me that there's a potentially fun puzzle in it.
Greeting cards are organized by "theme codes" (or were, back in the fin de siecle). They were normally four letters long, and were supposed to tell you the general overall point of any given sentiment. Sometimes they were about the punchline (GGAG stood for "gift gag"--a joke where you promise a gift on the outside, and there's some twist when you open the card), but mostly they were designed for serious cards (such as SELD, for "seldom say"--"I love you all the time, even though I only buy you cards on our anniversary." Very popular in male captions.)
Here are ten greeting card sentiment theme codes. Can you suss out what they stand for?
1. HMYM
2. WHAP
3. SLAM
4. FRND
5. TOY or THOY
6. QLIF or QLIFE
7. WSUC
8. TYDS
9. GENW
10. ENCG
Answers later. I'm a little busy right now.
(Greeting card people who participate will, of course, face a much steeper grading curve. Even if you worked at American Greetings and not Hallmark, I still assume you know Hallmark's theme codes. After all, American Greetings copied everything else...)
UPDATE: I've posted the answers here.
Greeting cards are organized by "theme codes" (or were, back in the fin de siecle). They were normally four letters long, and were supposed to tell you the general overall point of any given sentiment. Sometimes they were about the punchline (GGAG stood for "gift gag"--a joke where you promise a gift on the outside, and there's some twist when you open the card), but mostly they were designed for serious cards (such as SELD, for "seldom say"--"I love you all the time, even though I only buy you cards on our anniversary." Very popular in male captions.)
Here are ten greeting card sentiment theme codes. Can you suss out what they stand for?
1. HMYM
2. WHAP
3. SLAM
4. FRND
5. TOY or THOY
6. QLIF or QLIFE
7. WSUC
8. TYDS
9. GENW
10. ENCG
Answers later. I'm a little busy right now.
(Greeting card people who participate will, of course, face a much steeper grading curve. Even if you worked at American Greetings and not Hallmark, I still assume you know Hallmark's theme codes. After all, American Greetings copied everything else...)
UPDATE: I've posted the answers here.
Labels: games
posted by Cowboy Dave Dickerson | 11:58 AM
7 Comments:
My guesses:
1. HMYM - card for a holiday that sounds like another holiday
2. WHAP - card with a small item on spring that pops out and hits you in the face when you open it
3. SLAM - card with a large item on spring that pops out and hits you in the face when you open it
4. FRND - card with a floral theme, particularly one featuring palm leaves
5. TOY or THOY - card to be enclosed with a dildo or vibrator given to a vegetarian with a lisp
6. QLIF or QLIFE - request for dissuasion from suicide
7. WSUC - group apology
8. TYDS - card expressing sarcastic appreciation (thank you, dickweed scumbag)
9. GENW - retronym for birthday greetings to baby boomers
10. ENCG - features a pinup shot of everyone's favorite crossword gal, Ellen Ripstein
HMYM = Hey Mom, You're Mean!
WHAP = What's Happening?
SLAM = Sorry, Ladies, Al's Married
FRND = Friend
THOY = Thought of You
QLIF = Queer Life
WSUC = Washington State vs. University of California
TYDS = Typical Daughter Stuff
GENW = Generic White
ENCG = English Composition (Graduate level)
(Honestly, I couldn't get one of them. I tried.)
WSUC should be pretty obvious to anyone who's been paying attention to the national scene since 2000. Still, I'm surprised Hallmark was already on this back in the old millennium.
I don't know, I bet you're pretty close on two of them -- FRND is probably "friendship" and TOY/THOY "thinking of you". ENCG must be "encouragement". But I'm pretty stumped by these overall -- WSUC could be, like, "wish for success" and WHAP "wish for happiness", maybe. I want HMYM to be "how I met your mother", but probably not.
Wow....you learn something new everyday! :-)
I love learning that type of information.
Dave
Starting A Greeting Card Business
Hmmm...is #1 "How Much You Mean (to me)"?
Dave, aren't you going to provide answers to this puzzle? I'm dying to know...
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