I just love that title. Barbara suggested it to me during the Chinese stock market's meltdown when I
asked what I should write about this week.
We’d just finished watching an American Presidential candidate give an
encore performance of his coping mechanism when faced with journalistic
criticism, and her line had me laughing right up until I looked at the Greek
news.
The same sort of guy, sans
money or the hair, actually got elected in Greece and had the Prime
Minister’s ear…until he got the PM’s boot.
As I mentioned last week, it’s election time again in
Greece, the third this year. There’s also a new Prime Minister, the first woman
in Greece’s history and the sixth since the financial crisis began—but she’ll
only serve for thirty days. There’s also a new finance minister, the eighth
since 2010.
 |
| New Greek Prime Minister Vassiliki Thanou |
It’s anyone’s guess how this is going to turn out, because
no Greek seems to believe a single word any politician says. In fact, the polls
make it seem certain that no party will gain an absolute majority, and the
environment for a viable coalition government looks even less hospitable now than
it did for the government that just collapsed.
All of which means a possible new round of elections before the end of
2015—just what a disheartened people trying to cope with an economy on the edge
of perdition needs: more uncertainty.
That was a long way around to an explanation for what I
decided to write about this week. Or rather borrow from an email full of
chuckles sent to me by a friend. It’s a list of paraprosdokians––figures of
speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or
unexpected, frequently humorous. Of course, it’s a word derived from the Greek,
meaning “against expectation.”
And since I didn’t write them, there’s a very good chance
you, too, will enjoy them. I’m told Winston Churchill did. :)
1. Where there's a will, I want to be in it.
2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but
it's still on my list.
3. Since light travels faster than sound, some
people appear bright until you hear them speak.
4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.
5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to
act in public.
6. War does not determine who is right - only who
is left.
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism.
To steal from many is research.
9. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was
blaming you.
10. In filling out an application, where it says,
'In case of emergency, Notify:' I put 'DOCTOR'.
11. Women will never be equal to men until they
can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they
are sexy.
12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You
only need a parachute to skydive twice.
13. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.
14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first
and call whatever you hit the target.
15. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian
any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
16. You're never too old to learn something
stupid.
17. I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's
getting harder and harder for me to find one now.
Not all of the above reflected my attitudes, but they did make me smile, something very little else in the world seems to be capable of doing these days…except for this current visitor to my farm. She always makes me smile.
Jeff—Saturday
