OXYMORONS

Do you love oxymorons? Or do you think you’d probably enjoy them if you knew what they are?

Ok, if you don’t know what an oxymoron is or if you’ve forgotten since your mid-century schooling, (1940’s- 1970’s) I’ll try and explain. First off they are a heck of a lot easier to pick out when you hear one than it is trying to define them. An oxymoron is when someone uses contradictory terms in the same sentence or series of sentences.

There quite a few of these that we commonly use without thinking about them because they have become an accepted phrase i.e. “ Living Dead”, “Old News” “New Classic” and I could probably write a book full of them. But for this post I’ll just list some of my favorites.

In Tennyson's Idylls of the King has 2 for the price of one : “And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true." I think I was 12 or so when I attempted to read this for the first time. Just imagine how that twisted my little angst ridden adolescent mind!! It was like a secret of the universe had been presented to me and I had to solve it. I figured God, or whoever was toying with me and saying “Riddle me this”. A couple years later when I understood it, and understood oxymorons I didn’t feel like such a, well, a moron.

Then there was a humor magazine whose editor recieved a lot of mail. For you youngsters, I’m talking about mail not e or electronic mail, I’m talking back in my childhood, when mail was delivered by horse. But the editor kept getting letters telling him his magazine and his jokes were “not in good taste”. To which he printed on the cover of his next issue- “ Good taste and humor are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore!” If some of you find a word in that sentence one that toy are not familiar with ask your parents what CHAST means.

Mark Twain had a few oxomorons up his sleeve, although I don’t know how he had room for them with his trusty typewriter. One of which was “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Ok people said he said it, there isn’t any documentation yet that he said it, but come on…who does it sound like? I mean if you hear the phrase “ Float like a Butter Fly- Sting like a Bee” should we really doubt our own gut knowledge and start watching hours of film to hear Ali say it?

One of the most popular songs of my generation was The Sounds of Silence” we are so used to it that we mostly never realized this incongruent title.

One of my favorites is by the man who brought us 1984 and Animal Farm “There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.” George Orwell

Shakespeare’s Romeo threw several around “Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!” Is but one of several.

Here are a few more for dessert.

Deafening silence

Quiet Riot not the band because they sure weren’t

Sweet Sorrow

I’m in favor of free expression provided it’s kept rigidly under control. (Remember this one it ties in nicely for when I write about conspiracies!

George Carlin posed one of my favorite questions “How is it possible to have a civil war?”

And to end today’s moronic post “Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.” Carl Jung

When I was in 1st grade I won an award for having read the most books. Being up on stage with the principal of the school, Mrs. Workman, was pretty cool although I couldn't understand why they were making such a huge presentation out of it.

That question was answered when Mrs. Workman handed me a ribbon with a medallion on it. I had read more books than anyone in the entire school.

A little 6 year old 1st grader had read more books than the 6th grade snobs.

I had been reading since kindergarten and aside from playing and watching baseball, it was my deal. All kids have deals. Hula hooping, Barbie, G.I. Joe, climbing trees, dancing. I think you see where I could head with this. But reading and baseball were my deals.

Sometime in 2nd grade or maybe 3rd grade, I always made sure I had a #2 pencil, or a fountain pen and paper of some sort with me every time I was reading. I'd see a sentence in a novel I liked and jot it down. I wrote down new words I found, I'd make a note of a word that was fun to say- that felt good as it left my mouth. Eventually I turned to harder wordplay,crosswords, anagrams, studying origins of words and so on.

It was no great surprise that I wanted to be a writer. In 4th grade I won an essay contest again against the entire school and it was published in the town newspaper. A dream began. I didn't feel I had a knack for fiction. But non-fiction and poetry were my métier.

Getting published was a real kick, and also affirmed that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing.

Of course poets don't make a living wage, even though to this day at age 54, I have never submitted a poem that was turned down. But reading and writing were regretfully placed on the back burner. When I was 40 and Multiple Sclerosis decided to make its residence in my body known, I had a lot of time on my plate. So, I got to read, make my little notes, and write.

I started a political blog and it was pretty successful. I got other gigs when editors of other web sites asked me to contribute. Things were pretty good-except for what M.S. was stealing from me. Aside from a physical assassin, it also causes quite a bit of cognitive dysfunction.

Anybody who writes about this crazy political world we find ourselves in -knows it is an emotional land mine. So I stopped the blog, too much stress. I stopped Twitter even though I had a large following. I withdrew into books and junk food TV.

What you will find on this blog will be unpredictable. Perhaps a quote, a word origin tale, trivial facts that I've saved in my notebooks, and scraps of papers, maybe a word game or 3.

I really want this to be an interactive blog. A place where discussions can take place, even disagreements, your favorite words, anything that suits this site. So if you would like to take part at anytime you will make me a happy blogger. Just email me 1txsage1957@gmail.com.

My next post will be a rave about how much I adore my Nook Color and what it can do. Soon it will be about a Nook Tablet after I save enough coin.

I'd like to hear what you think of whatever reader you use.

And I ask you to please remember I’ve had 6 concussions this year and there are times when my cognitive skills slip away as does a fish you just caught and released.