Your Lexicon (REDUX)

11.3.2016  (first published this week 2000)

I looked up the word "paradox" in the dictionary. I know what the word means but sometimes it's nice to see an official definition. Clears up any ambiguities. www.dictionary.com (a very cool resource) defines "paradox" as:

1. A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true: the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking.

2. One exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects: "You have the paradox of a Celt being the smooth Oxonian" (Anthony Burgess).

3. An assertion that is essentially self-contradictory, though based on a valid deduction from acceptable premises.

4. A statement contrary to received opinion. I like the number two definition.

At a Cubs / Giants game a couple years back my lovely sister wore a Giants cap and a Cubs jersey. I pointed a finger at her and said, "yer a damn paradox there, sister." (Anybody know what an Oxonian is? Look that sucker up.) It is, however, the number three definition that clearly conveys the paradoxical feeling I had the other day. I was being bad, but at the same time it was really good. I ain't gonna tell you details. (I don't want to tip my hand to the Sherrif's Department, if you know what I mean.) But there's yer paradox: Bad is good. Self-contradiction. Weird how that works out. I just wanted to share one of my favorite words with you. Tonight we trade favorite words and drink here:


The Homestead (a port of sanity in a sea of madness)
**NOTE** last official meeting of November.  Came quick, no?

One fella new to the list: Don. Hi Don. Really nice turnout at Latin American Club last week. Might as well make tonight's meeting, too.

TONIGHT'S CONTEST: Limbo.

TONIGHT'S DRAMATIC REENACTMENT: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Players: Tama plays the Edmund Fitzgerald, "The Pride of the American Flag." ("The ship was the pride of the American side / comin' back from some mill in Wisconsin "); Moss plays iron ore. ("With a load of iron ore 26,000 tons more / than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty"); Jerry plays Lake Superior ("The lake it is said never gives up her dead / when the skies of November turn gloomy"); (nameless) and Dee play the northeast winds and the wily northwest winds, respectively ("and late that night when the ship' bell rang / could it be the north wind they'd bin feelin'); Spark plays the waves breaking over the side ("The captain wired in he had water comin' in / and the good ship and crew was in peril"); and Clova plays the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald ("and later that night when 'is lights went out of sight / came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"). (You might guess that them lyrics are from that famous song. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald; Lyrics by Gordon Lightfoot, Moose Music Ltd.)


Anybody see that lady sitting in her car in the parking lot yesterday? She was crying really hard. Weeping. I wonder if she's all right.

Another of my fav. words is "pariah." Haul your behinds to the 'Stead fer a shot. Bring yer pals. As always, I will. See you there! bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!