The Hidden Edge

In previous Blogs I have alluded to poetic licence for using language, words and grammatical punctuation for comic or dramatic effect.  This week I want to talk about oxymora, the plural of oxymoron, a pretty ugly word in its own right – don’t you think? 

Oxymora are a proper subset of the expressions called contradictions in terms. What distinguishes oxymora from other paradoxes and contradictions is that they are used intentionally, for rhetorical effect, and the contradiction is only apparent, as the combination of terms provides a novel expression of some concept, such as ‘cruel to be kind’. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymoron  

Many oxymora are used as a matter of discourse and are no longer considered to be contradictions; let alone a novel expression of concept.  I site the following in that list: the living dead, old news, seriously funny, near miss, same difference, together alone.

A couple of my favourites are: ‘your silence is deafening’ and ‘the silence sales person’.  I prefer salesman but recognise that it is not politically correct!  Mmm politically correct – is that not now an oxymoron? 

I also like the idea of ‘tax return’ and ‘doing nothing’, but hate the concept of ‘one size fits all’ or the ‘non-alcoholic beer’! 

How many oxymora can you identify in the following clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_bfPGHuOu4

At first count I have 31?

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At the end of a rather wet and windy Weymouth bank holiday weekend, the sun has come out just in time to put fingers to keyboard to type set this week’s Blog. 

As usual, I got diverted when I started reading this newsletter article in World Wide Words, to which I subscribe:  http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/kfty.htm#N5

The content in this article took me back to Lynne Trusses book that I had been reading over the last May bank holiday Eats, Shoots and Leaves.  She eloquently describes punctuation as being the art of separating the parts of written composition so that the meaning can be readily understood. 

The value of sharp punctuation, in sales copy, cannot be over estimated.  It does not necessarily have to follow the grammatical rules.  Indeed, in advertising copy, quite often the position or exclusion of punctuation accentuates wit.

“A woman, without her man, is nothing. 

A woman: without her, man is nothing.” 

Another of the quotes I love from Lynne Trusses book; “punctuation points up – rather in the manner of musical notation – such literary qualities as rhythm, direction, pitch, tone and flow.”   

If you want your copy to be read in the way that you wish, then you must punctuate accordingly to let your sentences contain a pleasant rhythm. 

This is superbly illustrated by Dean Martin and Victor Borge? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7L02tCNi0I Enjoy!

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Last year I read a rather battered version of John Gray’s “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”.

It landed in my lap at a time that couldn’t have been more significant. My husband and I had had a lengthy and somewhat heated argument over maps and the directions on how to get to the lovely Ligurian Coast in Italy, from Milan.   The actual argument lasted three days and the ongoing repercussions; three – six months, roughly!

The significant learning point is that we (men and women) do speak very different languages. What I say, and my husband hears, can be often miles apart. A bit like where we ended up and where we should have been!

On this occasion I thought I was asking him to stop and look at the map with me, to determine where we were, and to work out how to programme the Satellite Navigation System (the technophobe that I am).

What he heard was he had taken the wrong route and added an hour to our journey; that I didn’t trust him to take the right route later on. He heard that I was unhappy with him and therefore no longer loved him.

His subsequent response was that we were going in the right direction now and that there was no need to stop and check the map.  Of course what I heard was; what are you so upset for?  You are being irrational.   I know I am right and you are wrong so stop causing these arguments as I no longer love you.

I have, over the last six months, put some things that I learnt from this book into practice, with some reasonable results. However, there is no way I would ever be able to get my husband to read it, let alone adopt any of the communication tips that might motivate or encourage me, a woman.

Thankfully, it would appear that if only one person makes a change to the words that they use, there is still a knock on effect. If one person feels acknowledged and appreciated it makes them more likely to acknowledge and appreciate the other.

My questions for today are:

• Are there any men that have read this book? If you did; what positive (or negative) affirmations have you had?

• How many women have read this book without passing it on to their man, like me and if so why?

• How many of either sex can’t be bothered either way?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueUOTImKp0k

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Prelude to the Blog:  This week has been a one of real highs and real lows. I was at a loss to know what to write about this week for fear of belittling the lows, with my usually up beat musings.  Yet not really wishing to dwell on them. 

So I was surfing around on Google for a while when I found the top ten words that had been looked up in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary for 2006.  I decided to create a Blog around them.    See if you can pick out the top ten words?  

And whilst you do, have a listen to this.  It’s great classic from the 80s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef1AAhxjueg

The Cold War at Work can relate to a period of conflict, tension and negative competition between opposing factions in the work place.   The analogy is played out by two superpowers, often previously allies, in multiple arenas.  Coalitions are usually formed which quite often lead to a quagmire for all those involved in the organisation.

The resulting corruption of the underpinning values that the organization purports to support, weakens the leadership.  The subsequent insurgent actions of either party at any given time, erodes confidence in the management.   This is because regardless of political correctness, vendettas and systematic use of shock (terrorism) is used as a means of coercion in the fight to be right.  Unfortunately this state of hostility spills over in the workplace as each tries to substantiate his or her ‘sectarian’ truthiness.   

The cold war will only draw to a close when either a decider leaves the arena or détente
is sought by both sides.

Thanks to Google and Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary for this weeks Blog.   So ….. how many of the top ten word did you pick out - be honest now?   To find out go to http://www.m-w.com/info/06words.htm

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This Blog is further to an earlier one http://thehiddenedge.blogwessex.com/2007/03/30/its-time-for-saying-goodbye/ where I mentioned how important it was to say goodbye properly! This one is based on a simple thank you!

My husband often says ‘you are the best!’ Ok that’s kinda nice but the best at what?

Washing his socks? Ironing his shirts? Making the bed? Cooking tea?

Or is it something else much more important that that? Who knows, only him! Come to think of it - how does he know?

When you are saying thank you or well done! Do make sure that the recipient knows why you are saying it. Even though you might think it is obvious, the receiver may not. The power behind the substantiating words is so much more than the two preceding ones.

Think about it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-VSVqXgzU

• When has someone said to you “well done for …”

• “You are the best because …”

• “Thank you for …”  How special did it make you feel?

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This is a different sort of Blog today, not as upbeat as I usually like to be; but today has been hard. 

Please click on this and get in the mood with me first http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ujEpNq36Ok

Today, an associate of mine Robert Pascall gave the most brilliant eulogy of his young wife who died suddenly of a massive brain haemorrhage.

Whilst touching, it was spiced throughout with his take on her wicked sense of humour.  So much so, that when we gathered outside after the service and sleet prevailed you could just imagine her chuckling and touching up her hair.

How right it is to say goodbye! 

Today, I also said goodbye to many colleagues after a significant cull from the organisation.  This was done on mass at a gathering in a pub in Poole. 

There were no cards, no collection or presentations.  Not only have they been separated, not from choice, from people they had gotten to know for any number of years, but there was no individual or personal recognition of their departure; just a group beer.  

I will never let that happen again. 

I realised today how the written word is so powerful.  ‘I am sorry that you are leaving’ or ‘how wonderful you have another job’ or ‘good luck with your new venture’, lasts so much longer in print than it ever does over a few pints of beer.   Adding a poignant memory of something that you have shared with them would make the written gesture even more special. 

I hope that my special colleagues (and they will know who they are) will forgive me for not taking the time out to express in writing why I will miss them so much.

This Blog is for them and for Robert, Samuel and Benjamin for teaching me such a powerful lesson today. 

And for Sherry who gave them all something really special to remember her by.  As an organ donor she has made better eight other lives. 

WOW!

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I am, at the moment, on holiday in Obertauren in Austria.  The key board is slightly different here so if the spelling is slightly dodgy then please blame it on this!  Obertaurnen is where the Beatles recorded Help!  I believe in 1965.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUlARtE9yGQ&mode=related&search=

And having spent some time visiting a photographic exhibiiton here this morning it spurred me to think about a world without words!  IMAGINE!

A world without words? Music yes, pictures yes, but words no!  There would be no mobile phones, no books, no letters or Blogs; just music, body language and sex.  Now I quite like dancing myself, but my husband has no rythym for dance, so it begs whether we would ever have got together had it not been for the latter.

So let’s weigh it up?  Imagine the world without Boy Bands?  Without words the music is all the same and so is the dancing!  Imagine the world without Eastenders.  No point in watching that or any other soap without words either.  Bonus! 

We wouldn’t need French/English* dictionaries as the world would have one common language based on visual stimulation.  There would still be the news and weather forecasts.  And many other programmes stimilated by visual attraction.

There would be math so there is no reason why we shouldn’t be stimulated by darts, golf, football and other team sports but; there would be no commentators.  That way I guess we can make our own minds up whether any of the players are off side.  Indeed would there be an off side rule or any rules for that matter?  Hmmm!

Without words there could be no such thing as kidnapping, polititians, and karoake.  Sorry Japan! Then again we would miss out on interesting, amusing, creative and facinating minds like: 

• Jasper Carrot, Kenny Everett, Ant and Dec.
• Martin Luther King, Churchill and all the Kennedys
• Bowie, Bono and the Beatles.

To name but a few.  I am sure that I will add others with a bit more thought and that you can add some of your own to this list that without words would have had to find another way to be great?

* Or any other language foreign to me.

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A cliché symbolised by the mnemonic KISS.  I have always found the phase slightly insulting. 

What is so stupid about keeping things simple?  Or is it saying that if you use a word with more than two syllables, it is you that is stupid?  Or is it saying that because most people are stupid you have to keep things simple?

However I read this phase, I can’t see a positive slant to it.  I have tried changing the words to read Keep it Simply Simple (KISS) but that doesn’t really work for me either.

Let me be clear though.  I do believe that simple is best.  The UK average reading age is 8.  That is quite scary!  And when there are so many messages crossing our paths each and every minute, ones that are easy to assimilate are more likely to be remembered.

When you are writing you might like to consider:

• The length of your sentences.  Shorter sentences are easier to read.  Keep them to less than 25 words.
• The characters per word.  Shorter words are easier to read. 
• The number of sentences in each paragraph.  Shorter paragraphs are easier to read.

You can find out how easy your writing is to read quite simply, using Microsoft spell check. 

Click on spelling and grammar.  At the bottom of the blue dialogue box that there is a frame called options.  Click on this.  Tick the show readability statistics and close that frame.

Now when you finish spell checking you will have a report on the readability statistics of the piece you have written.  Wow how great is that?

You should be aiming for a high reading ease and a low readability statistic.

This piece has a 78.2 reading ease and a 4.6 readability status.  That’s pretty good.  I thought this was amazing when I discovered it a few years ago, I hope it helps you too.

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