What does THIMK stand for? Or if it doesn't stand for anything, when
and for what purpose is it used?

(I accidentally posted this in the "Comments" section below. I'm
reposting as an Answer. Please excuse the duplicate posts.)

Before I get around to THIMK, a made-up word which spread because of a
fad, I need to make reference to an earlier fad:

"THINK was a one-word slogan developed by IBM founder Thomas J.
Watson, Sr. It appeared in IBM offices, plants and company
publications in the 1920s and in the early 1930s began to take
precedence over other slogans in IBM. It eventually appeared in wood,
stone and bronze, and was published in company newspapers, magazines,
calendars, photographs, medallions -- even New Yorker cartoons -- and
it remained for years the name of IBM's employee publication. You can
still find echoes of Watson's motto in the brand name of IBM's popular
notebook computers: the ThinkPad."
 
IBM Archives: THINK signs
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/vintage_4506VV2024.html

"The classic IBM 'THINK' sign was said to be a permanent feature of
IBM offices around the world until the 1970s. The 'THINK' concept as
company mantra originated with IBM founder Thomas J. Watson Sr. in the
1940s and was often parodied outside of IBM (in the.shtmls of
Datamation, for example) when this high standard went occasionally
unmet."

Computer History: IBM THINK Sign 
http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/highlights/think.shtml

The IBM sign that said THINK was immensely popular in the business
world for decades. The simple sign was seen everywhere. Then, in the
late 1950s, there was a counter-fad: signs saying THIMK began
springing up in offices and schools. The point was that whoever wrote
the sign obviously was not following his own advice, since he could
not "think" well enough to spell the word "think" correctly!

The THIMK sign originated in (or at least was popularized by) Mad
Magazine. Ironically, a rival humor magazine later named itself THIMK.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

A slightly less popular fad was a sign which bore the message PLAN
AHEAD - but the letters in AHEAD were all crowded together, since
there wasn't enough room on the sign for the entire word. And there
was yet another sign saying SOMEBODY GOOFED, with the letter 'F'
upside down. Mad Magazine published numerous versions of all of these,
but THIMK has stood the test of time.

Mad Collectibles
http://www.collectmad.com/COLLECTIBLES/madpc3e.jpg

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "thomas j watson" think sign
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22thomas+j+watson%22+think+sign

Google Web Search: thimk "mad magazine"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=thimk+%22mad+magazine

I hope this helps! If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

---

Request for Answer Clarification by thinkingtom-ga on 19 Apr 2006 04:14 PDT

Many thanks for the very quick and great reply. I only have one small
question left: what, in your opinion, would be the reason for people
to use this word in their everyday communication, as in "I thimk..."?
When searching for THIMK in Google I found many references to this.
Thank you again for a great answer!

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 19 Apr 2006 11:20 PDT

I have never heard "thimk" used in speech, but I speculate that folks
who do use it are probably just being whimsical, in the same way as
those who say things such as "anyhoo" and "backasswards."

There are quite a few uses of "thimk" online that are apparently
typographical errors. Since the 'N' key and the 'M' key are adjacent
to each other on the keyboard, this kind of error is very easy to
make. I thimk I've dome it nyself from tine to tine. ;-)

~pimkfreud

Before I get around to THIMK, a made-up word which spread because of a
fad, I need to make reference to an earlier fad:

"THINK was a one-word slogan developed by IBM founder Thomas J.
Watson, Sr. It appeared in IBM offices, plants and company
publications in the 1920s and in the early 1930s began to take
precedence over other slogans in IBM. It eventually appeared in wood,
stone and bronze, and was published in company newspapers, magazines,
calendars, photographs, medallions -- even New Yorker cartoons -- and
it remained for years the name of IBM's employee publication. You can
still find echoes of Watson's motto in the brand name of IBM's popular
notebook computers: the ThinkPad."
 
IBM Archives: THINK signs
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/vintage_4506VV2024.html

"The classic IBM 'THINK' sign was said to be a permanent feature of
IBM offices around the world until the 1970s. The 'THINK' concept as
company mantra originated with IBM founder Thomas J. Watson Sr. in the
1940s and was often parodied outside of IBM (in the.shtmls of
Datamation, for example) when this high standard went occasionally
unmet."

Computer History: IBM THINK Sign 
http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/highlights/think.shtml

The IBM sign that said THINK was immensely popular in the business
world for decades. The simple sign was seen everywhere. Then, in the
late 1950s, there was a counter-fad: signs saying THIMK began
springing up in offices and schools. The point was that whoever wrote
the sign obviously was not following his own advice, since he could
not "think" well enough to spell the word "think" correctly!

The THIMK sign originated in (or at least was popularized by) Mad
Magazine. Ironically, a rival humor magazine later named itself THIMK.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

A slightly less popular fad was a sign which bore the message PLAN
AHEAD - but the letters in AHEAD were all crowded together, since
there wasn't enough room on the sign for the entire word. And there
was yet another sign saying SOMEBODY GOOFED, with the letter 'F'
upside down. Mad Magazine published numerous versions of all of these,
but THIMK has stood the test of time.

Mad Collectibles
http://www.collectmad.com/COLLECTIBLES/madpc3e.jpg

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "thomas j watson" think sign
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22thomas+j+watson%22+think+sign

Google Web Search: thimk "mad magazine"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=thimk+%22mad+magazine

I hope this helps! If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

This all brings up one of my favorite lines from "Taxi Driver," referenced
here from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website entry for the movie.
http://www.imdb.com/

Travis Bickle: One of these days I gotta get myself organizized.
Betsy: Organizized? Don't you mean organized?
Travis Bickle: No, organizized. It's a joke.
Betsy: Oh, like those signs that says, "Thimk".

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher