Why do some acronyms only look right in lower case and others in upper case?

[FrannyandZooey]

btw

is definitely lower case

so is tbh

however IME and IMO are upper case

also OMG

ffs and fgs work either way I think

What do you think?

Word-Nerds Unite! U have nothing 2 lose but ur abbreviations!

TBH I hate text-speak.

I mean if someone wants to start a scrap about grammar I'll be right there

It's a bit too subjective, this, to be grounds for much of a scrap.

I think we need an archie and mehitabel type character on here, you know, the whole "cockroach without a shift key" thing.

you're right

let's have an apostrophe test

You mean e e cod?

Oooh, could e e cod really be a cockroach in love with a cat? With metaphysical yearnings?

(NB: It's E. E. Cummings. He didn't write his name lower case, just his pomes.)

I never thought archy was in love with Mehitabel at all

you could tell - he started taking the piss out of her when she claimed to be a reincarnation of Cleapoatra but couldn't remember who Marc Antony was

golly, what spelling!

Cleopatra

I wasn't expecting anyone to know what I was talking about!

No, maybe not in love with Mehitabel, but he certainly cared for her. I haven't read those poems for ages, must dig them up again.

I love them dearly - I discovered my mum's copy when I was about 14 and immediately thought she must be a secret beatnik behind the uptight façade...

have just idly rummaged for other Don Marquis stuff on Project Gutenburg and found this

I visited one night, of late,
Thoughts Underworld, the Brainstorm Slum,
The land of Futile Piffledom;
A salon weird where congregate
Freak, Nut and Bug and Psychic Bum.

he was an MNer!

He must have been! (Only do you think he meant Fish instead of Bum?)

That Don Marquis quote is perfect - it should be on the Talk homepage!

Didn't EEC write his name lc when it appeared with his poems? My poetry books are still all crated up so I can't refresh my memory.

I discovered EEC at about the same age as I was learning about capital letters and punctuation etc, and found him very confusing and annoying. Took me a while to appreciate him.

\link{http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/caps2.html\Cite}. It seems he really was E. E. Cummings or sometimes E.E. Cummings, but not e e cummings.