Thursday, May 15, 2014

English: still hard

    I posted a picture on Facebook. Really, I know how to post pictures here, too, but it isn't such a great picture that you need to see it to understand the anecdote. One of my favorite places to walk is Columbia's Historic Columbia Canal and Riverfront Park, which I generally just call Canal Park. The canal's old towpath, now a hip walking/ jogging/ biking/ rollerblading (dammit) track, runs under Broad River Road and its bridge, which has been in the process of being replaced since about 1923, I think. They appear to be doing the work molecule by molecule.
    Point is that there used to be a ramp up to the bridge from the towpath but it's been closed for ages. Now there's also a 20-foot or so gap from the ramp to the bridge. So the picture is of this gap, and the caption was "'Sidewalk closed.' Yeah, I can see that." And the hard part is, well that sarcasm can't be captured in print, basically. But as soon as I wrote it, I noticed that a reader wouldn't necessarily get what I was being sarcastic about. It could be read as meaning that I can literally see that the sidewalk is closed, though I meant it (mildly sarcastically) that I could understand why it might be closed. I can't think of a clearer way to phrase it. I get that it isn't the most important issue in history; it's just frustrating when I can't phrase a joke. Guess I should have gone with, "Good thinking!"

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