Area Woman Abbreviates, saves tm

Colleagues of local area resident woman Elena "Lany" Mamlok report that Mamlok is saving time by shortening the spelling of words.

"Thx", commented Mamlok. She went on to say, "At first I was worried I'd hurt the integrity of the English language.. but I've just saved so much time. Even cutting back on the ellipses helps."

To interview Mamlok for this article, she suggested we meet at the "Du Do" in Davis Square, Somerville, and grab a cup of coffee.

Studies have shown that the measures Mamlok has taken have provided her another whole minute over the past three months. Mamlok and her sister, Charna Mamlok Westervelt, also an abbreviator, combined their saved time and applied it to Cape Cod traffic.

"I'll admit, I was a little disappointed that I didn't use my time more wisely.. but there are still other ways I can get that back." Mamlok feels strongly that if she starts referring to the National Broadcasting Company as NBC, she will gain an additional five minutes by the end of 2010, since it's not a leap year.

However, not everyone is on board with Mamlok's verbiage. "I have no idea what she's saying half the time -- either in person or over e-mail", expressed a colleague who asked to remain anonymous. "And she also just sounds unprofessional. She calls a sandwich a 'sammich'. How does that save time? It's the same number of syllables. She just sounds like an imbecile." When asked to comment, Mamlok said she would have chosen "idiot" over "imbecile" to gain the milisecond in the long run.