In 1968, William Steig published a book titled C D B! Like the “txt spk” of today, its entire text consists of individual letters and numbers that, when pronounced, sound like words. For example:
C D B! D B S A B-Z B. O, S N-D!
This, as is obvious to anyone who’s ever deciphered a YouTube comment, is meant to read:
See the bee. The bee is a busy bee. Oh, yes indeed!
This seems less novel in 2009 than it must have in 1968, but it’s no less remarkable.
(Credit for this find goes to the Harvard Pops, who accompanied the book’s images and cryptic phrases with maestro Allen Feinstein’s own composition.)
March 1st, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Yeah, but I’m pretty sure he wrote the book to just promote the 250 character SMS text protocol he invented so people would have something to do during class, movies, dates, sex, etc.