How easy is it to write an interesting article on acronyms?

Here's how one Wall Street Journal reporter pulled it off.

Read that intro:

The New Deal gave the country the CCC, the TVA and the WPA. The waning days of the Bush administration produced TARP, for Troubled Asset Relief Program, also currently known as "the bailout." The stimulus package, the name of which is already a source of sniggers, has brought to life the RAT Board, LUST Trust and ARPA-E.

And here are the concluding paragraphs:

Departments that do choose to spell known words should take care -- poking fun at poorly chosen acronyms is already an Internet sport.

Jennifer Alicia Johnson, a former English teacher who now manages an afterschool program in Seattle, set up a blog in January to collect humorous examples.

"One does wonder, if they aren't fully thinking through their name, why should we believe they are fully thinking through their efforts?" she said.

Among her recent posts: the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, a 15-member council created under the recovery act that will (as the name suggests) coordinate research on the comparative effectiveness of medical treatments.

"Sounds like an OK idea to me," she wrote. "But the acronym? Say it aloud with me, now. FCCCER."

In the hands of an inexperienced writer, an article on acronyms can quickly turn into sludge. But Louise Radnofsky uses humour intelligently to lace her well-researched feature -- as a result, one is tempted to read from beginning to end.