You cannot speak to me that way—or can you?

With the advent of text messaging, it seems the English language has been reduced to a series of initials and punctuation marks. OMG! How embarrassing is it to have to ask a preteen just what does BFFL stand for? Call us hopelessly out-of-touch, but even when they spell it out, we don't know what's going on. (Do you know how long it took us to figure out what "I less than three you" means?)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

For the QTs in our lives, we picked up some tees and shorts from DTXT, a fashion line for tweens and teens that mixes color, comfort, and conversation. It's easy to figure out the mood of the minute when you see a CB wearing YYSSW on her shirt.

In addition to helping us under stand the lexicon of today's youth, New York-based DTXT donates $1.00 for every shirt sold to Hopeline, a charity created to help stop domestic violence as well as teen dating violence.

For more information, visit www.definetxt.com. If the day comes we understand all this, it might be time--as the kids say--to GAL. HAND.

Glossary: OMG=Oh my gosh; BFFL=Best friend for life; <3 is a heart; QT=cutie; CB=Chat Brat; YYSSW=yeah yeah sure sure whatever; GAL=get a life; HAND=Have a nice day.

C u l8r alig8r :)

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning