Define Irony

Alanis Morrisette tried (unsucessfully, I might add).

A traffic jam when you're already late
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic...don't you think
A little too ironic...and, yeah, I really do think...

Whatever. Really I would argue that nothing in her song is ironic.

Have you ever had to define irony for you kids? Sarcasm they get. But irony? So when I read this article on the first day of our Spring Break staycation, I knew I had found the perfect, personal example.

HMPH.

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

Lamb's Head

It's what's for dinner.

Sitting at the Red Light in Doha...

Is like going to Old McDonald's Farm.

Startling Statistics

"Some 226 people died in road accidents in the country last year..."


"...despite the relatively small size of the Qatari population, their death toll was the highest community-wise at 47, accounting for a large 20.4 percent of the total (226)."

"A vast majority of the Qatari victims were sitting behind the steering wheels of the ill-fated vehicles and a staggering 96.5 percent of them were male."

"Nearly two-thirds (66.4%) of those were young - in the age group 18-39 years old."

"Middle East ranks second in global road fatalities"

Quotes from The Peninsula, a daily newspaper. The pictures are mine.

Scratch Egypt off the list...

Come listen to a story about a trip full of bliss
The pyramids and Red Sea we didn't want to miss
Then one day while glancing at the news
Up came the idea that this was not all good.

Well the first thing you know there's rage in the air
Friends said "Sharon, you really want to go there?"
The men setting flames and the tanks around the bend
So we scrapped all our plans and started our search again.

A beach that is. Swimming pools. Movie stars?

So now we start again and google lots of stops
We'll let you know soon which island's calling us.
But you're all invited here to this locality
To have a heapin' helpin' of our hospitatlity.

Arabia that is.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Excitement in Doha

Never mind that no one I knew felt anything.

"Sources from the Meterology Department in Qatar have confirmed rumours about a slight earthquake that was felt in some parts of Doha early this week.

"Though a few people have claimed to felt tremors that occurred at around 10pm on Tuesday, there was no significant impact.

" 'There was a slight tremor of a very insignifant scale,' said a senior MET official.

" 'A slight earthquake occurred some 330 km north-east of Doha. The impact was felt by a very few people,' he told the Peninsula."

The Peninsula

And that, y'all, is the highlight so far of 2011.