religion of CHI

religion of CHI: /ki/ n.  [Case Western Reserve
   University] Yet another hackish parody religion (see also
   {Church of the SubGenius}, {Discordianism}).  In the mid-70s,
   the canonical "Introduction to Programming" courses at CWRU were
   taught in Algol, and student exercises were punched on cards and
   run on a Univac 1108 system using a homebrew operating system named
   CHI.  The religion had no doctrines and but one ritual: whenever
   the worshipper noted that a digital clock read 11:08, he or she
   would recite the phrase "It is 11:08; ABS, ALPHABETIC, ARCSIN,
   ARCCOS, ARCTAN."  The last five words were the first five
   functions in the appropriate chapter of the Algol manual; note the
   special pronunciations /obz/ and /ark'sin/ rather than the more
   common /ahbz/ and /ark'si:n/.  Using an alarm clock to warn of
   11:08's arrival was {considered harmful}.