They really missed an opportunity to get the semaphore to look like the letters they represent. At least get the I, K, and T to line up (V gets a pass because at least that pattern goes to the U).
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025
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There was a very large number of people who seem to want to write C for Sierra and it's really concerning.
Not only does it mean they've never heard of Sierra Leone which shows a distinct lack of geopolitical knowledge, but they've also never heard of Sierra software which shows that they're not worth talking to.
Also that they thought that the phonetic alphabet, created for making it less ambiguous to describe English letters verbally, would decide to use one of the exception cases to the pronunciation of the letter C where it takes on the identical sound to the letter S, to help avoid confusion.
I'm sure a lot of people don't know about the phonetic alphabet and just think I'm coming up with equivalents on the fly.
I once had an engineer go "G as in, ....er... Oh Geee?", which I suppose worked, sort of.
Or Sierra Trading Post, the best place to get your outdoor gear.
It's ALFA https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_136216.htm
Don't ask me how I know. It's annoying.
M as in Mancy. You would know!
The "calls with your mom or diffusing a bomb"...that whole section seems weird.
Haha, didn't catch that it was "diffusing" you know I guess a pretty efficient way to do that would be to detonate it.
Wait is this whole thing somehow an Archer reference
S1, E7: Skytanic
It's the first episode with Ray I think. Check it out on Netflix or wherever you dig up your internet video booty arr
M like in Mancy
FYI, the semaphore signs are shown from the listener's PoV, so if you are signing to someone, you have to mirror the directions you see in this image. So for example to send a J, you raise your right flag and point the left out level.
I know all of this right up until the person on the phone asks me to spell it and then suddenly my mind goes blank. Every time.
I use the NATO everyday at work and I'll be handing this one out to new folks lol.
I know these... And for 20 years I refuse to use any, its way funnier to hear the cringe on the other side.
Bonus points to use things that sound like other things for example: "K as in Knife"
Some options not yet in these threads:
- A as in Aether.
- E as in Ewe
- D as in Django.
- H as in Herb (depends on locale).
- J as in Jalapeno.
- P as in Phonetic.
- T as in Tsunami.
Yesssssss And depending what part of the world you are talking to you can also pronounce the "J" hard in Jalapeno to really get people going. I used to have to do this all the time over the phone in my old job and still have a chuckle about it.
I've always enjoyed playing with folks who actually know this by giving them intentionally misleading cues. Instead of "E as in Echo", say "G as in Gecko". That sort of thing. Cuneiform, Frisky, Mango, Oubliette, Zima...
Now I want all 26 done this way... D as in django would probably be the best though.
P as in pterodactyl
You can also just mess with them like:
- M as in Mnemonic
- N as in Ne
- O as in Opossum
- P as in Pneumonia
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Papa and Mike
I know about this. I still choose my own rules. Once I said "X for xylophone". It makes things fun.
One time my roommate (who worked at Amazon) did that and people were giggling over the words he chose, most of them were Pokemon iirc.
X as in Xanax Y as in Yggdrasil Z as in Zed
Z is pronounced as "zed" in the UK.
Same here in Canada. And that is why it is funny.
Haha I just got that, I think I'll be using that too thanks.
B as in Bee is also funny as when they go "what?" you can say "you know, Bzzz Bzzz"
I practice this by reading off license plates while I’m driving.
It’s not a useful skill at all because the only time I use it is calling somewhere, and nobody else knows them.
You have to say it anyway, make them the weird one for not putting two and two together. This shit was created for a reason.
I have found it really useful for confusing AI phone support agents too. Reading a postcode as "Alpha bravo 1 2 3 charlie delta" and it had no idea what to do so put me through to a person.
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personally, I've always preferred this version:
fingler
I always thought we should add the Hot Shots! callsigns
"Copy that, Purple Fluffer Nutter."
"Roger that, Milli Vanilli Chilly Willy."
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