further adventures of "ironic"

[Jonathan Lighter]

A current commercial that I can't quote precisely features a man who
manufactures skateboards (or something vaguely similar) with motors. He then
says that the motorized board idea is "rather ironic."

"Strange" would seem to be a better fit here as well.

JL

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 3:16 PM, Rick Barr <rickbarremail at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Rick Barr <rickbarremail at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: further adventures of "ironic"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It's an odd phrase, to say that closing down the street for the languid
> parade was very ironic. I agree with George that "strange" is probably what
> the speaker had in mind. But it's a special kind of strange, nuanced by the
> standard meaning of *ironic*, involving a disparity between two things (the
> real and the one that is presented, the intended meaning and the stated
> one). I think that's what the speaker was aiming for, that it was strange
> to
> see such a disparity between the size of the parade and the magnitude of
> the
> chaos produced by it. I haven't seen other examples of this sort of
> "ironic." Might the fact that the man was feeling IRate have prompted the
> choice of IRonic?
>
> -- Rick
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 11:05 AM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu
> >wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > Subject:      further adventures of "ironic"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > An article in today's NYTimes on street processions in the Williamsburgh
> > area, honoring patron saints, specifically St. Cono, of Teggiano, Italy.
> >  (section A, p. 16, column 1, for those of us still bound to
> print-on-paper)
> >  This area of Williamsburgh was until recently largely inhabited by
> Italian
> > Catholics, but it seems now has a considerable number of young residents
> not
> > raised to the tradition.
> > One (Chris Tocco, 26, an actor) is quoted as saying: "It was a tiny
> parade,
> > and they shut down Graham Avenue?  There was one float and a horrible
> > marching band.  It was very ironic."
> > If Mr. Toco were to be asked to pick a replacement for the word "ironic"
> > here, he might choose "having the the nature of irony or covert sarcasm;
> > meaning the opposite of what is expressed"; he might choose "showing a
> > condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or
> might
> > naturally be, expected"; he might even choose "being marked by a slightly
> > amusing trivial coincidence"; but I think he would choose "strange".
> >
> > A 27 year old onlooker offered the insight "It's kind of like a vestige
> of
> > the old neighborhoods of Brooklyn".  It is like that, indeed, kind of.
> >
> > (First two defs. adapted from the OED)
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > George A. Thompson
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> > Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
> >
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