In an effort to help you better understand the CRT, I point you to the Wikipedia article on Metasyntactic Variables.
I point this out based on a conversation I had with Todd this morning where he asked me “What is this foo you keep using when you talk.” I often use many of the metasyntactic variables listed in the examples section without even thinking about it. I suspect other computer people do as well.
After my explanation (helped by wikipedia) Todd said he would use the word widgets instead of foo. This is a wonderful illistration of the difference in his business-oriented background vs my tech-oriented background.
If nothing else, the wikipedia entry is a very interesting read that I think can help you understand us better.
