i love oxymorons…

I love oxymorons. I do….

I’ve always loved them as I find them funny. But it took a cooler slant for me after an incident with my niece and nephew when they were both I think, three and five plus respectively. (Apparently, the other niece, the cousin, then five, shared the same sentiment too but she was not with them during this episode).

Don’t you just love it when you hear the spontaneous gurgle of laughter from children?  I love it and miss it…. but I digress.. 🙂

I was in the bedroom one day when I heard the brother and sister duo gurgling with mirth, from the living room.  So I hastened out to ask them what was tickling their funny bone, expecting a roundabout, childlike explanation of the events leading up to the bout of laughter.

Instead, my nephew simply explained, with all of the mastery of a five plus-year old,”Oxymo[w]on”…. and went on to explode into further fits of laughter.

I had to do a doubletake because I thought I had mistakenly heard… well… Oxymoron…and this time the three-year old repeated emphatically, “O XY MO [W]ON”… and the “you moron” might have been the silent subtext, if you had just seen her rolling her eyes as she said it. 😀  Like… get with the programme, already… hahaha…

So cuuuutttteeeee…. and wow!  So clever!  I think I only really started using the word when I was in pre-university doing Practical Criticism!

They had been watching “Sheep in the city” – a cartoon … and I guess they were expected to appreciate the humour from a child’s perspective (you know.. like how a Roald Dahl book like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, can be appreciated at very different levels, as a fairy tale by a child and a satire, as an adult…) yet here they were, laughing at oxymorons.  

The objects of their mirth?  Characters in the cartoon called General Specific and Private Public…  (It’s even cuter when mouthed by a

General Specific

Private Public

toddler and a pre-schooler, when they zeroed in on the two names when I asked them if they knew the meaning of the word “oxymoron”.) They were tickled pink by the contradiction in terms.

Amazing eh?… Can’t blame them when you know the mother had probably sat watching the cartoon with them some time earlier and probably laughed out loud and called attention to the oxymorons as the story  unfolded. 

So you see why oxymorons have a special place in my heart?  Besides that they are funny, I have, engraved in my mind’s eye, the endearing picture of two imps with heads thrown back, shoulders shaking and eyes squinting, in uncontrolled mirth.

This awwwwwww..some 🙂 episode was rekindled when my friend casually mentioned my use of an oxymoron yesterday.  I have not been exercising for ahem… quite awhile (well.. it has been intermittently pouring or is freaking hot… everytime the thought of exercising crossed my mind), so brisk walking has all but come to a halt.

Yes, yes… when you are trying to save your knees for use for the rest of your earthly life… you stop jogging and start brisk walking (with the aunties :p …. sigh…).  Or at least take up something, kinder to your cartilage.  Since I have not even been doing that! :p sigh…. I had warned my friend to go easy.  Her rejoinder came.. ok we stroll… And not wanting to lose face or worse… lose to the aunties, 😮 I sent back a retort, “Brisk stroll”. (right! 😉 )

Then last weekend, in editing a letter, I had told the writer that it had to be less specific but clearer! 😮 … hahaha… trust me, the re-edit based on the [oxy]moronic principle, worked!  Really… You have to read it to believe it. 🙂

But back to my point and the intent behind this blog …  that you share some oxymorons you’ve come across that’s tickled you pink or your own [oxy]moronic moments from interactions in school, at home, at work, at play, with strangers, reading, watching TV 🙂 etc…

Would love more awwwwwsome moments. 🙂  So send some this way will ya? 

Cheers!