From my local paper tonight.

quote:

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Winds are now not expected to reach a mere 110 mph.

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Also from the same article about Hurricane Isabel, another strange use of "ironic".

quote:

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Ironically the warnings have come from the stunning pictures from space of the majesty of Hurricane Isabel.

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Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

No.

Bear, you are a man of few words!

I don't even understand the meaning of the first sentence. Does it mean the winds are now supposed to be more than 110, since mere means "small or slight"? Yet, by context (with the word "now") one might think it means now they aren't expected to reach as high as 110 mph. However, remember, I am a real literalist, so this type of sentence confuses me.

Now, for the second, maybe ironic is used because of the comparison of devastation with the looks of majesty in space? Yet, it is clearly an awkward sentence.

My suspicion is that, in the first sentence - eben though it's short - the writer has lost track of how he started before he finished.
He started to write

"Winds are not expected to reach 110mph."

but changed his mind to

"Winds are expected to reach a mere 110mph."

and somehow ended up muddling the two together.

As for the second sentence it's almost certain to be another of the plentiful misuses of a word that seems to give so many people so much trouble.

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

The winds had previously been 160 miles per hour. Could it be then that the reference to a "mere" 110 mph was ironic? Unfortunately, I can't find the article itself.

quote:

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Originally posted by wordnerd:
The winds had previously been 160 miles per hour. Could it be then that the reference to a "mere" 110 mph was ironic? Unfortunately, I can't find the article itself.

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The problem is with the combination of "not expected to" and "a mere", an unusual word combination to say the least.

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

I'm going to have to look up George Carlin's take on this and post it here. The non-ironic-reported-as-ironic is a major gripe with him and he has written about it clearly and devastatingly funnily.

(No comments, please, on how awkward "funnily" may strike you. It's a legitimate, if not euphonious, word.)

Sorry, I do plan to comment on "funnily." I did not think it legitimate, but, funnily, you're right. It sounds like a coinage to me.