film at 11

jargon (MIT, in parody of US TV newscasters) 1. Used in

conversation to announce ordinary events, with a sarcastic

implication that these events are earth-shattering. "ITS

crashes; film at 11." "Bug found in scheduler; film at 11."

2. Also widely used outside MIT to indicate that additional

information will be available at some future time, *without*

the implication of anything particularly ordinary about the

referenced event. For example, "The mail file server died

this morning; we found garbage all over the root directory.

Film at 11." would indicate that a major failure had occurred

but that the people working on it have no additional

information about it as yet; use of the phrase in this way

suggests gently that the problem is liable to be fixed more

quickly if the people doing the fixing can spend time doing

the fixing rather than responding to questions, the answers to

which will appear on the normal "11:00 news", if people will

just be patient.

[Jargon File]

(1998-03-24)