Train of Thought: Part 3 in an Ongoing Series
A day late and a dollar short, today is August 6.
On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in an electric chair. He had murdered his common-law wife, Tillie Ziegler, with a hatchet 18 months earlier. Thomas Edison, a proponent of Direct Current, fought against Kemmler's appeals, possibly hoping to show the dangers of Alternating Current (which the electric chair used). The chair's first, 17-second-long electrical charge failed to kill Kemmler. The voltage was increased to 2000 volts, but the generator needed time to charge up again, and meanwhile, witnesses watched Kemmler smoulder and moan. The second attempt went on for over a minute, filling the room with the smell of burning flesh and smoke that rose from Kemmler's head. George Westinghouse, a proponent of Alternating Current, later commented: "They would have done better using an axe."
In 2005, AC/DC finished second in a list of highest-earning entertainers from Australia - trailing only
- despite neither group having released an album or having toured that year. According to an April, 2006 survey published in the Australian media, The Wiggles grossed more the previous year than AC/DC and Nicole Kidman combined.
Nicole Kidman met country singer Keith Urban at a Hollywood event honouring Australians in January, 2005. When they met, Keith Urban was dating supermodel Niki Taylor. Urban and Taylor split up July, 2005. Nicole and Keith were married on Sunday, June 25, 2006, at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St. Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney.
St. Patrick is one of three patron saints of Ireland (the others: St. Brigid and St. Columba). He is also the patron saint of excluded people, engineers, and Nigeria. He is said to be buried under Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down alongside St. Brigid and St. Columba, although this has never been proven.
The eighth paragraph of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll begins "Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--'"
The Earth Centre, Doncaster, was a museum/attraction opened in 1998, closed in 1999, refurbished and reopened in 2001 and reclosed in 2004. Housing galleries, sprawling gardens, fishing lakes and an authentic Kyrzyg yurt, the whole point of the Centre was sustainability: it tried to show how Earth is being mistreated and suggest ways the planet's state can be sustained. Unfortunately, consistently low attendance numbers meant the park wasn't even able to sustain itself.
Contrary to what you learned in English class, there are more than three kinds of irony:
Dramatic Irony: Used in stage and screen; Audience knows information that the characters don't
Situational Irony: AKA Life-Isn't-Fair Irony; improbable situations that break with expected results. Ex: A millionaire goes on 'Survivor' and wins another million dollars.
Cosmic Irony: An extreme version of Situational Irony. Ex: A man who only wants time to read is the only survivor in a nuclear war and now has all the time in the world...except then his powerful-prescription glasses shatter and he can't see anything.
Verbal Irony: generic term for using words in a way opposite of what you really mean; actually is separate from two other types of irony that are grouped with it (i.e. socratic, roman).
Socratic Irony: Used in debate; feigning ignorance in order to expose the weakness of another’s position.
Roman Irony: Used in public speaking and rhetoric, in which the words used are opposite their meaning or intent. Essentially high-profile verbal irony, the way that cosmic irony is still technically Situational. Roman Irony can be seen currently being used nightly by Stephen Colbert, on 'The Colbert Report'.
Historical Irony: Only relevant in hindsight; when historical viewpoints and quotes are reassessed today and are seen to be ironic (i.e. the opposite of the later-recorded truth). Ex: Nearly the last words of American Civil war General John Sedgewick were "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
Edie Sedgwick, best known as a star of underground films made by Andy Warhol in the 1960s, suffered from clinical depression and bulimia as a young woman, and she was institutionalized briefly at Bellevue, where they refused to believe that she was Edie Sedgwick, giving her electric shock treatments in an attempt to "cure" her of the delusion.
Aaaaaaand, with those electric shock treatments, we've come full circle. Or rather, full circuit. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night.
.
On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in an electric chair. He had murdered his common-law wife, Tillie Ziegler, with a hatchet 18 months earlier. Thomas Edison, a proponent of Direct Current, fought against Kemmler's appeals, possibly hoping to show the dangers of Alternating Current (which the electric chair used). The chair's first, 17-second-long electrical charge failed to kill Kemmler. The voltage was increased to 2000 volts, but the generator needed time to charge up again, and meanwhile, witnesses watched Kemmler smoulder and moan. The second attempt went on for over a minute, filling the room with the smell of burning flesh and smoke that rose from Kemmler's head. George Westinghouse, a proponent of Alternating Current, later commented: "They would have done better using an axe."
In 2005, AC/DC finished second in a list of highest-earning entertainers from Australia - trailing only
- despite neither group having released an album or having toured that year. According to an April, 2006 survey published in the Australian media, The Wiggles grossed more the previous year than AC/DC and Nicole Kidman combined.
Nicole Kidman met country singer Keith Urban at a Hollywood event honouring Australians in January, 2005. When they met, Keith Urban was dating supermodel Niki Taylor. Urban and Taylor split up July, 2005. Nicole and Keith were married on Sunday, June 25, 2006, at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St. Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney.
St. Patrick is one of three patron saints of Ireland (the others: St. Brigid and St. Columba). He is also the patron saint of excluded people, engineers, and Nigeria. He is said to be buried under Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down alongside St. Brigid and St. Columba, although this has never been proven.
The eighth paragraph of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll begins "Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--'"
The Earth Centre, Doncaster, was a museum/attraction opened in 1998, closed in 1999, refurbished and reopened in 2001 and reclosed in 2004. Housing galleries, sprawling gardens, fishing lakes and an authentic Kyrzyg yurt, the whole point of the Centre was sustainability: it tried to show how Earth is being mistreated and suggest ways the planet's state can be sustained. Unfortunately, consistently low attendance numbers meant the park wasn't even able to sustain itself.
Contrary to what you learned in English class, there are more than three kinds of irony:
Dramatic Irony: Used in stage and screen; Audience knows information that the characters don't
Situational Irony: AKA Life-Isn't-Fair Irony; improbable situations that break with expected results. Ex: A millionaire goes on 'Survivor' and wins another million dollars.
Cosmic Irony: An extreme version of Situational Irony. Ex: A man who only wants time to read is the only survivor in a nuclear war and now has all the time in the world...except then his powerful-prescription glasses shatter and he can't see anything.
Verbal Irony: generic term for using words in a way opposite of what you really mean; actually is separate from two other types of irony that are grouped with it (i.e. socratic, roman).
Socratic Irony: Used in debate; feigning ignorance in order to expose the weakness of another’s position.
Roman Irony: Used in public speaking and rhetoric, in which the words used are opposite their meaning or intent. Essentially high-profile verbal irony, the way that cosmic irony is still technically Situational. Roman Irony can be seen currently being used nightly by Stephen Colbert, on 'The Colbert Report'.
Historical Irony: Only relevant in hindsight; when historical viewpoints and quotes are reassessed today and are seen to be ironic (i.e. the opposite of the later-recorded truth). Ex: Nearly the last words of American Civil war General John Sedgewick were "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
Edie Sedgwick, best known as a star of underground films made by Andy Warhol in the 1960s, suffered from clinical depression and bulimia as a young woman, and she was institutionalized briefly at Bellevue, where they refused to believe that she was Edie Sedgwick, giving her electric shock treatments in an attempt to "cure" her of the delusion.
Aaaaaaand, with those electric shock treatments, we've come full circle. Or rather, full circuit. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night.
.