open vs. open

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

To add to the list of self-antonyms (or whatever you want to call them) such as "clip" and "cleave":

Ventnor, New Jersey (which gave its name to two squares on the Monopoly board) is divided into two by a canal.  There is only one bridge over the canal, a drawbridge called the "Dorsett Avenue Bridge".

Currently this drawbridge is under repair, so the bridge is closed (to traffic).  However, the two leaves of the drawbridge are in the raised or "open" position, so the bridge is "open".  Hence it is open and closed at the same time.

An arcane footnote: in advanced mathematics (topology frequently used as part of basic calculus) a set of points can be "open" or it can be "closed" (or neither).  The only exception is a continuous unbounded set, e.g. the real number line, which is both "open" and "closed" at the same time.

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Headline in the Atlantic City Press: "Seafood Stolen; Police Cast Net"

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Sign at a pedestrian crosswalk: "Stop 4 Pedestrians; State Law".  I don't know what you are required to do in case there are only 3 pedestrians.

     - Jim Landau

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