OWGN

Maybe you are not familiar with my penchant for making acronyms for everyday situations. When planning to eat at burger machine, we speak of the BM. The DO is of course the dump out, which usually follows eating at BM. It's not that "dump out" is too long to say, it's that making an acronym enables me to use it in public places. For example, in the hotel lobby I can holler to Ben "I'm just going to D.O. and shower, then I will be ready to go out." There are other acronyms we use that are inappropriate to explain (like the DOJO and the APJO), and I am sure that more will be created. The OWGN is something that comes up frequently, but not everyday. Some of you may have experienced this if you have traveled to a place where you are the minority and looked significantly different that everyone else. The OWGN of course stands for the "Obligatory White Guy Nod." No matter what the situation, when we run into another white guy, he automatically nods to acknowledge our presence. I could walk by a thousand Asians and not get a single nod, but I could see a creepy white guy from across the street and he is waiting for me to look over so he can nod. It's like his day would not be complete if he didn't throw the nod.

I never start the nod, but when I receive it I am faced with the choice of whether or not to nod back. I almost always do to be polite, and usually it is just a natural reaction, but I want to stop him and tell him that we are not buds...and that you wouldn't nod at me in the US or Europe. Anyways, this is an interesting wrinkle of traveling, and I look forward to seeing if it's the same in other countries...but I know it is.

There are variations of this like the OBGN (which looks a lot like OB/GYN), which may be experienced by Steve Ak when in Wrigleyville or Rey in the northern suburbs of Atlanta.