|
|
religion of CHI: /ki:/, n. [Case Western Reserve University] Yet another hackish parody
religion (see also Church of the SubGenius,
Discordianism). In the mid-70s, the canonical
“Introduction to Programming” courses at CWRU were taught in
Algol, and student exercises were punched on cards and run on a Univac 1108
system using a homebrew operating system named CHI. The religion had no
doctrines and but one ritual: whenever the worshiper noted that a digital
clock read 11:08, he or she would recite the phrase “It is 11:08;
ABS, ALPHABETIC, ARCSIN, ARCCOS, ARCTAN.” The last five words were
the first five functions in the appropriate chapter of the Algol manual;
note the special pronunciations /obz/ and /ark´sin/ rather than the more common
/ahbz/ and /ark´si:n/. Using an alarm clock to warn
of 11:08's arrival was considered harmful.
|
|
