Ironic

[pluckyduck]

It's ironic, don't you think, that as passionate as I am about using words correctly, I always struggle with the word "ironic".

So, the other day Adam used "ironic" in a sentence, don't remember what. I was thinking to myself, I wonder if that's the right way to use the word, because I get confused. Adam looks up at me and says, "Did I use "ironic" the right way?" Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Looked it up for the 97 billionth time in my life. Dictionary.com has a nice usage note:

Usage Note: The words ironic, irony, and ironically are sometimes used of events and circumstances that might better be described as simply “coincidental” or “improbable,” in that they suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly. Thus 78 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of ironically in the sentence In 1969 Susie moved from Ithaca to California where she met her husband-to-be, who, ironically, also came from upstate New York. Some Panelists noted that this particular usage might be acceptable if Susie had in fact moved to California in order to find a husband, in which case the story could be taken as exemplifying the folly of supposing that we can know what fate has in store for us.

By contrast, 73 percent accepted the sentence Ironically, even as the government was fulminating against American policy, American jeans and videocassettes were the hottest items in the stalls of the market, where the incongruity can be seen as an example of human inconsistency.

Explained it to Adam, we've both got it.

Then he asks me, "Is it ironic that dry ice burns?"



I don't think so. But if isn't ironic, what is it?



Andrea
panting, panting, trying to keep up with a nine year old

[murasaki]

Dry ice freezes. It's ironic that it "smokes," but really it only sublimates as it goes directly from solid to gaseous form.

--naomi

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I'd say it's ironic, or maybe even oxymoronic.

[pluckyduck]

murasaki said

Dry ice freezes. It's ironic that it "smokes," but really it only sublimates as it goes directly from solid to gaseous form.

--naomi

Okay, I'm branching off into science here where I'd really rather not be. I'm in over my head before I start.

I googled very quickly and I see that a dry ice "burn" is really freezing, which of course I never knew.

http://van.hep.uiuc.edu/van/qa/secti...0616030452.htm

However, I don't think anything that isn't human can be ironic, anyway.

Maybe it's ironic that we think dry ice is burning when it is really freezing?

I'm so confused.

Andrea

[pluckyduck]

mjfrombuffalo said

I'd say it's ironic, or maybe even oxymoronic.

Well, I thought that "dry ice" itself was an oxymoron, until I looked up the definition:

A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.

Now, I'm not sure I've been using that word right for the last 42 years. It appears you can only use it in conjunction with a rhetorical figure, and 'dry ice' is a name.

If I'm geeking out too much for you guys, just ignore me.

Andrea

[theworm[$]]

you're actually quite entertaining.
Go on.

[pluckyduck]

theworm said

you're actually quite entertaining.
Go on.

Beware of me. I spent my childhood reading the dictionary for fun while the normal children were playing in the sun.

I just wish I'd retained more of what I read.

Andrea

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I don't care if it's rhetorical or not. Jumbo shrimp still stands as an oxymoron in my book. Dry ice, however, I'll admit was a stretch. A dry martini is not since a martini is a drink and for it to be a drink it must be wet so there fore it can't be dry. At least in the World According to MJ.

[eplovejoy]

I think "ironic" has gone the way of "tragic" and "hopefully." They are all used frequently but very rarely correctly and so they no longer retain their original meanings.

Peter,
who hopes this makes sense and doesn't seem like just sour grapes because he's bitter that Alanis Morisette made much more money for not knowing what ironic once meant than he ever has for knowing

[taurusmoon]

Wanna hear some irony?

I got yet another collection letter from my friends at Blockbuster Video today. My son allowed a friend of his to rent a DVD on my account. An account that I very rarely use, btw.

The first I heard about it was when I got a phone call that it was overdue. It was one of those robocalls on my answering machine so I ignored it assuming it was a wrong number.

Two days later I got a statement in the mail and realized that it was indeed my account in question. I asked my son whether he knew anything about it and the truth came out. He then called his friend who swore up and down that it was returned on the due date and not a minute later.

So, I handed the dunning slip to my son and stood over him as he made the phone call to straighten the matter out. Which he supposedly did. The person at Blockbuster assured him that there was some sort of computer error, because the store account doesn't show a late return.

Today's letter said that they had sent this to a collection agency. Naturally, this brought out the best of me as I grabbed the phone and asked to speak with the store manager. I have been assured that the case is now officially closed. We'll see.

Okay, so where's the irony, you ask?

The DVD that has called all this consternation? It's called Paid in Full.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Hubby always has problems with Blockbuster. He's found that putting the video in the slot pretty much guarantees late fees no matter when he drops it off. He now walks it in and insists that someone scans in the video while he's standing there.

[ms_n]

!!!

[pluckyduck]

Hmmm, I seem to be finding irony everwhere, sorta like my friend Sara. ( story, BTW)

Switched pencil manufacturer's on a long standing product. Last week, the new imprinting place called and asked about a mistake they found on the artwork we sent. A certain word had a for-no-reason space right in the middle:

WO RD

Like that. We checked the current pencils, and catalogs going back three years and sure enough, we've been running the mistake in the catalog and on the product for many years now.

The word?

DUMMY.

I said to myself, mighty ironic.

Andrea
who should say Dum my

[frazzledspice]

Isn't it paradoxical that dry ice freezes?

[pluckyduck]

My head hurts.

I ran "paradox", etc., through Dictionary.com when I originally posted and I'm not sure that fits, either.

I really hate it when the English language kicks my tush.

Andrea

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

In our household, "paradox" means Hubby's brothers, the anesthesiologists in Arizona.

[pluckyduck]

mjfrombuffalo said

In our household, "paradox" means Hubby's brothers, the anesthesiologists in Arizona.

Barummp

bump!

Lord, what would a New Years Eve be like without this crew.

Andrea