pluto phil odie 040627 ... Soma not a planet. 060904 ... superleni a dwarf d0g 060904 ... sisyphus a very short word for "warning: not even the universe can escape clarification." 060904 ... Punster Condemned to the Under-World HA HA HA HA HA HA! 060905 ... Keil It was officially discovered the year my grandfather was born, and it was stripped of it's planetary status the year he died. (he died in july) It is as if the plutonian ice-ball's title of "planet" was the sustaining influence of his life. Even more ironic: he was a scientist. 060905 ... Tyronic That is pretty cool, Keil. But I don't understand what is ironic about it. Did he possess some sort of contra-Plutonian trait or something? 060905 ... superleni keil's use of irony is consistent with one of the more popular uses of it, that is, to describe an outcome of events contrary to what would have been expected. reality bites should have been more thorough in its definition of the word. i love pedants. 060905 ... just anyone I feel you, Keil. that's pretty damned brilliant. hail grandfather! hail pluto! 060905 ... Tyronic Wait - so it was 'expected' that Keil's grandfather would have died in a year in which Pluto was not declassified as a planet? And it was expected that his grandfather, who had this peculiar lifespan, wouldn't have been (of all things) a scientist? And somehow his having been a scientist runs contrary to the expectations we all carry about people whose lifespan correlates with the era of Pluto being considered a planet? Who had expectations about this? I mean, if he'd been an astrophysicist or an avid astrologer or something, then I can see an application of such irony. Coincidence is not the same as irony. So far, this looks like coincidence. Let's just admit that we now use "ironic" to describe anything startling. That's fine. What do I care? Any meaning to be found in the word 'irony' is going the way of Pluto, but who cares? Let's just have one word to describe everything, that way no one's grammar or wordchoice can ever be reproached. All I was trying to do was uncover something deeper about Keil's Precious Grandfather, so that I, too, might revel in one of irony's eleven possibly applicable definitions in conjunct with this blathe. I'm still waiting. 060906 ... Keil I was trying to use the word "irony" with its definition as "a humorous coincidence." I would guess that coincidence itself would have been acceptable. Apparently, in this instance, the two terms seem to coincide. :) Anyway, I disagree with your request for a single term. I think one of the strengths of the english language is the use of synonyms. Where would the enjoyment be in writing and orations if the same words were repeated without reprieve? Granted this makes our language one of the hardest to learn. By the way, please correct me if I happen to use the wrong term or phrase in my blathes. I have a tendency to butcher the english language at times. 060906 what's it to you? who go blather from