Irony alert
May 4th, 2009
My wife, who writes better headlines than I do, said most people wouldn’t understand my headline about Fiat. I wrote “Fiat plans for world domination: a sure thing“, thinking Davos Newbies readers would understand that the “sure thing” was failure, not success.
I think it’s generally true that Americans aren’t strong on irony, although there are certainly exceptions. The British, on the other hand, excel at irony. I spent 27 years in Britain. Some of that atmosphere wore off on me. So please pay attention.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:06 am
“Fiat plans for world domination: a non starter“,
Might be a more suitable headline for anyone who ever owned a Fiat 127 or some of their other 1980′s models.
Ireland isn’t shy in the irony stakes either, love the blog & greetings from a windy but dry Dublin.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Very good.
Without getting too much into national stereotypes, the Irish are probably even better at irony than the British. The Italians, on the other hand, not so much.