Irony

Hello again.

Now, I don't usually take umbrage* with accepted sources of fact, but I feel the need to draw y'all's attention to The Everyday Oxford Dictionary's definition of irony.

Irony n. the expression of one's meaning by using words of the opposite meaning in order to make one's remarks forceful, e.g. that will please him (used of something that will not please him at all).

Now before I get into this, can we all please go back and have a giggle at Oxford's attempt at humour while still using the word "one" to refer to an individual? Good, brilliant. Anyway, sure the definition is fine, but to me the example given seems more appropriate to apply to the word "sarcasm". So I looked that up too:

Sarcasm n. 1. an ironical remark or taunt. 2. the use of such taunts

Shit thanks for that Oxford, that's so helpful. But wait, it gets better:

Sarcastic adj. using or showing sarcasm


SIGH. This just isn't good enough. But fear not, I have a solution. It is the following photo, which I will gladly send to the Oxford people so that they can change the entry to read thus:

Irony n. e.g.

It is important to note that this hydrant booster can be found at a significant educational facility. See Oxford? THAT's irony.

And while we're on the topic of graffiti, I took a photo of this too:

I walk past it everyday, and at first it made me sad. But then the more I thought about it the more I realised it's a badass way to guilt trip your ex. (I'm making the assumption here that the "baby" in question is not dead, but broke up with the graffiti artist. I'm making this assumption because death isn't funny. Let's not think about this too hard, yeah?). I hope that the ex lives in the house opposite and has to look at it everyday. And I hope they think, "damn - he/she was such a good graffiti artist, they had such potential, and I just threw them away like an old spray can, what was I thinking?!"



Right, that's all from me for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks for not asking why I was looking up words in the dictionary.


L






*take umbrage - an excellent phrase that should be used more in daily conversation. Particularly because it pays homage to Professor Umbridge, who is evil and excellent and who looks a lot like an older version of my local member for parliament:

...I'm just sayin'