Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!sdcc6!sdbio2!jude
From: jude@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Jude Poole)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: XYZZY
Message-ID: <6194@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 18 Jan 90 17:39:02 GMT
References: <4504@rtech.rtech.com> <51073@bbn.COM>
Sender: news@sdcc6.ucsd.edu
Reply-To: jude@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Jude Poole)
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 18

In article <51073@bbn.COM> cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) writes:
>reb@squid.rtech.com ("REB - Tennessee Lamb") writes:
>
>}Does the word "xyzzy" have an origin earlier than the Colossal Cave adventure
>}game? Where exactly did it come from?
>
>I believe that Will just made it up [much as he made up near everything else
>in Adventure].  I can ask him, but I'm really quite sure that it was just
>random-letters.

On I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas there is a road with the
name Xyyzzy or something very similar (I fly nowadays and so haven't
seen it in a while) This may be where he got the word but I have no
way of verifying it.


jpoole@ucsd.edu
jpoole@ucsd.bitnet