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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2009 4:50:42 GMT
Anything I read, I take at face value. If you want to be ironic and have me interpret it that way, you'll have to start using emoticons. We are creating a special fund to send recalcitrants to emoticon training camp.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 21, 2009 6:39:48 GMT
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Post by Kimby on May 21, 2009 6:41:57 GMT
Can you also start a fund to send us too-literal persons to a humor/irony identification course?
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2009 13:23:29 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on May 21, 2009 16:17:34 GMT
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Post by Kimby on May 21, 2009 19:00:58 GMT
By following the link above, I was led to this:
Fowler's Modern English Usage defines irony as...
... a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware of that more and of the outsider's incomprehension.
So neither gyro nor anyone else can be ironic without gullible literal people like me to play the foil to their cleverness! The rest of you smart folks can nod knowingly and smile discreetly while the little drama plays out.
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Post by gyro on May 21, 2009 19:10:40 GMT
I don't think that's a particularly accurate description, in all fairness. I would say that the whole double audience thing is true, but it is only a POTENTIAL double audience. Irony is still irony even if it is understood by all.
You do yourself a dis-service, my lady.
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Post by Kimby on May 21, 2009 19:15:35 GMT
Oh, so it's like the tree falling in the woods, only if there is no one there to hear it, it DOES make a sound?
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Post by gyro on May 21, 2009 19:22:25 GMT
Are you being ironic ... ?
No, I meant that you don't HAVE to have somebody that 'falls for it' for it to still be ironic. Although I also think it's an over-used description too.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 2:42:27 GMT
I'm not sure what happened to Spring. Today has been a really hot day, just like it were mid summer. Even the June bugs have come out and it's not even June.
Time to put up the pool methinks.
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Post by imec on May 22, 2009 2:48:42 GMT
I'm not sure what happened to Spring. Mystery solved - it got stuck here in Winnipeg. No sign of summer here.
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Post by BigIain on May 22, 2009 9:41:18 GMT
Bix, thanks for posting that link, I found it most helpful.
Its in to summer here already. Somehow there appears to be many more flying insects than normal and also many fewer bees. Strange. I live a hunded metres or so from the town cricket ground and am often treated to the most definitive sound of English summer... bat on ball!
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Post by happytraveller on May 22, 2009 11:04:23 GMT
Hot and humid here. Love heat but hate humidity. Makes me feel weak.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 11:13:08 GMT
It was unbearably muggy in Paris yesterday. I stayed in the office at lunchtime today so I'm not sure how the weather has become except that it seems nice and sunny -- I can't wait to go outside now but I'm trapped until 4 pm.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 11:59:25 GMT
I'm not sure what happened to Spring. Mystery solved - it got stuck here in Winnipeg. No sign of summer here. I can well believe that imec. Some years back I spent a few weeks in Winnipeg, this was in July/August, it was very hot. You seem to get the real extreme variations in weather over there. Very, very cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Although the summers are very short aren't they?
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 12:40:40 GMT
HT,you would hate it here. The humidity that is. One does adjust over time,it's why people move so slow here which isn't a bad thing. A friend of mine from up north likened the weather here to "living inside a watermelon".
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Post by imec on May 22, 2009 13:17:45 GMT
You seem to get the real extreme variations in weather over there. Very, very cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Although the summers are very short aren't they? Anything can happen in the west. Spring is normally about a 3 week affair - the snow melts and about three weeks later it's summer. I travel for work quite a bit - it's not unusual for me to leave on Monday morning while there are tiny buds on the trees and return Thursday and the trees are all in leaves. The big question is always "when will the snow disappear". It stayed long this year (into early April) - and we've had it unseasonable cold since then (last Friday was the coldest May 15th on record with a daytime high of just 4 degrees celsius). Summer can sometimes start in late April and last until well into October - other times it can be 3 months or less (I had a colleague from Calgary note that one day a week and a half ago, "we had summer yesterday") - hence the stock Winnipeg joke - "We have 2 seasons, Winter and Road Construction. Don't get me started on the mosquitos...
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 13:43:37 GMT
imec,your post could have been written about NOLA,almost verbatim including the road construction. I may borrow your friend's phrase. And don't get ME going on the mozzies...
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Post by happytraveller on May 22, 2009 13:45:00 GMT
HT,you would hate it here. The humidity that is. One does adjust over time,it's why people move so slow here which isn't a bad thing. A friend of mine from up north likened the weather here to "living inside a watermelon". Casimira, I would hate to live there. Would love to visit though
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 16:29:15 GMT
There is this low pressure system that rose up from the Gulf and lingering with the threat of rain. I've had three false starts to work this a.m.,dry at my house,pouring where I need to go and on and on. Of course the people in their offices only know that they want their courtyard spiffy,spiffy for the long weekend(Memorial Day Monday).Arghhh!
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 16:30:45 GMT
Hurricane season soon!
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 16:33:47 GMT
9 days...
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 17:06:26 GMT
Proud Houston was still licking its wounds when I was there in November, and Galveston was still completely in ruins. I can imagine what all of the cities that tasted Katrina, Rita, Ike fear for each new season.
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Post by imec on May 22, 2009 18:56:36 GMT
No hurricanes here. Just finished flood season though. Brutal this year - the cold weather meant that the ice broke up a bit but didn't melt resulting in large ice jams and flash flooding. Water is still pretty high but the threat has now passed.
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Post by Kimby on May 22, 2009 19:48:07 GMT
Oh, so it's like the tree falling in the woods, only if there is no one there to hear it, it DOES make a sound? Are you being ironic ... ? No, I meant that you don't HAVE to have somebody that 'falls for it' for it to still be ironic. Although I also think it's an over-used description too. Gyro, read more closely. I said it DOES make a sound, even if no one is there to hear it (i.e. irony exists without a gullible fall guy). I get it!
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Post by gyro on May 22, 2009 19:50:06 GMT
See ? Your communicative intelligence more than makes up for your lack of irony appreciation ...
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Post by Kimby on May 22, 2009 20:06:52 GMT
Are YOU being ironic, now?
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 20:55:35 GMT
imec, it's not a lot different from the East then. We had snow at the end of April too, although it can stay warm(ish) until November here, and doesn't get too cold until end of December or January. I don't think we get the extreme colds here like you do in Winnipeg though.
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Post by imec on May 22, 2009 21:05:59 GMT
deyana, you're right. I travel to Toronto at least twice per month and it's often nice to be there in the warm sun in October/November by which time it's often cold and snowy here. I will say though, that even though the temperature in Winnipeg is usually much lower than Toronto in January, it actually feels colder in Toronto as it's so damp - and that wind coming off the lake can take the skin right off your face! Sometimes walking back to the hotel after dinner it can feel like there is a hatchet stuck in your forehead.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2009 21:17:04 GMT
I have been to Montréal in the middle of winter (around -18° as I recall) but never to Toronto at that time. Montréal was more or less bearable even during blizzard conditions (didn't stay out all that much since I would dive into those underground zones as quickly as possible), but I could definitely feel the skin freezing off face some of the time.
Praise the lord for medicinal poutine.
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