Little Ironies of Life
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (95461)
United States
March 22, 2023 6:57am CST
Have you ever thought sometimes there are little ironies in life. Take this simple one between a short person and a tall person.
If you are short and you ask a tall person to help you reach something up high this is considered to be very helpful to the short person. But if, on the other hand a tall person were to ask a short person to pick something up low for them, this would be considered an insult to the short person.
Don't you dare actually means "do not you dare," but if you said it that way people would look at you funny.
These also remind me of some funny observations the famous comedian Gallagher used to make about certain words. For example, we drive on a parkway but park on a driveway. A building that is already built is called a building instead of a built.
Is it odd that our nose can run and smell and so can our feet? An ass can be a clown, a donkey, a jerk or a nice thing to admire.
That is all, now onward and upward to the rest of your day.
17 people like this
14 responses
@porwest (95461)
• United States
22 Mar 23
lol. It can be a challenge for a non-native speaker for sure. I mean even if the word raze is spelled differently from raise, it sounds exactly the same. Raze of course means to demolish and raise means to bring something up—when you tell someone who doesn't know English well a building was razed, they might think you mean it was recently built. lol
2 people like this
@1creekgirl (42205)
• United States
22 Mar 23
Really cool info. Isn't it strange when we say to someone, "What did you say your name was?" The name hasn't all of a sudden changed.
2 people like this
@1creekgirl (42205)
• United States
5 Oct 23
@porwest People get a panicked look if you start to tell them how you really are.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (224787)
• Chile
22 Mar 23
I loved your post! I look at those things in Spanish.
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (83628)
• United States
22 Mar 23
Gallagher was one of my favorite comedians and yes the ironies do seem a bit confusing but funny
2 people like this
@cabuyogty (3192)
• Philippines
22 Mar 23
I always have that ironies and that's okay with me 
2 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (91565)
• Arvada, Colorado
22 Mar 23
There are so many strange sayings huh Jim?
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (82219)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
23 Mar 23
A road is also a route it can be used for walking or driving. We live on a certain street but cars drive on streets while people walk on sidewalks.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (122533)
• Gainesville, Florida
23 Mar 23
I wonder if this is unique to our language, or if things like that happen in other languages as well?
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (122533)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Feb
@porwest I have a Spanish-speaking co-worker from Argentina on my staff, and he says some of their Argentinian (Spanish) sayings are as weird as ours.
1 person likes this
@porwest (95461)
• United States
5 Feb
@moffittjc Interesting. I guess when I think of wordplay, I only ever think of English based on how many words are similar even if some are spelled differently. Like "raise" and "raze." In the former we're lifting something up and in the latter we're bringing it down. lol.
@LindaOHio (183822)
• United States
15 Apr 23
That's what's called the English language. I'm surprised I understand and vocalize the language as well as I do.
1 person likes this
