Post-Schna-ulations

Isn't it ironic?

Yeah, and how many of you just thought "don't you think?". When thinking of a title, that was not my intention, I swear! Anyway, my point was not to get a terrible song stuck in your heads, but to call your attention to a news story about how a coronor discussing gun safety shot himselfin the leg.

Toumey told The Herald-Times for a story published Saturday that he was demonstrating gun safety to some people at a Lake Monroe boat ramp about 11 p.m. Wednesday when he accidentally shot himself.
He said that as he checked to make sure his weapon was unloaded, the gun discharged, and a bullet struck him in his left leg.

I am reminded of a conversation that occurred several months ago at a friend's house about how one would define irony. I can't remember if we came to any conclusions, outside of giving examples of what is ironic and what is not (for example, I feel that this story is ironic, but EVERYTHING in Alanis Morissette's previously alluded to song is NOT ironic...which in and of itself might be ironic? Though I would say no, it's more just stupid than anything).
Along the same lines, I was giving an NP test today that requires an individual to give a definition of a series of words. Through this test, a person is given a 'verbal score', which is compared to a norm for their age and education and later to future scores obtained by the same person to note any potential decline (this is a WAIS test). Anyway, some of the words are easy to define, others much more difficult. The scoring is pretty strict too, with definitions being scored as 0, 1, or 2 (2 is the best).
Words that tend to give people the most trouble (or ones for which they they tend to gget 0's or 1's) include:

Tirade
Regulate
Evasive
Remorse
Fortitude
Audacious

So, as I know that many of your out there are literary folk, I challenge you to give me a definition (no cheating!) of each of these words, and see how you score on the WAIS.
And if you're really itching to, you can throw in thoughts on the meaning of irony too, just for kicks. :)

posted by Schna @ 12:19 PM