In Ireland the inevitable never happens and the unexpected constantly occurs
~Sir John Pentland Mahaffy
Found this quote not too long ago and I really like it. But today, I was thinking about it and realized how grammatically irratating it is. Bear with me for a moment while I try to proof it out (high school geometry applied to english? who’da thunk?)
Facts about the quote:
1) A refrence to Ireland
2) The inevitable never happens
3) The unexpected constantly occurs
Ok so here’s my problem with it: This man claims that in Ireland the inevitable never happens. Ok, fair enough. Then he claims that the unexpected constantly occurs, cool beans. Let’s delve into the dictionary for a minute.
The definition of “unexpected” is “not anticipated, surprising”. “Inevitable” means ”Predictable or not able to be avoided”.
Alright so here we go: the unexpected is occuring constantly, people start to get used to it happening, it becomes…predictable…unavoidable.
At the same time, the inevitable (which by the way, if is unavoidable then it should be happening anyway, but that’s another rant) is not occuring. Therefore, if, on the occasion it may occur, wouldn’t it then be unexpected?
In this way, the so called “facts” we intially drew from this original statement are therefore false and the statement is disproved in that it has become contradictory of itself.
That being said, when/if I get to Ireland, I fully “expect the unexpected”. If I don’t meet a leprechain, fairy, or at least a nice-looking Irish guy to fall in love with; then I will be disappointed with the false advertisment and demand a full refund.
