Thought/Anecdote of the Day™©®

for March 15, 2001

On Irony

It was unseasonably warm and a man was eating an ice cream cone of Breyers Vanilla ice cream. It melted in the summer air.

I saw the man, and I said, “Is that good?”

He looked at me for a moment. “I love ice cream. I could eat it by the ton.”

The trees rustled in the breeze.

“If you ate a ton of ice cream, you’d die. Wouldn’t it be ironic to be killed by the thing you loved?” I said suddenly.

He considered his Breyers ice cream for a moment. “Yes,” he said, “It would.”

We stood for a moment in silence and listened to the faint jangling of the ice cream truck’s bell.

Suddenly, the man was stabbed to death by the CEO of Breyer’s.

I looked at the CEO for a moment. As the ice cream melted on the pavement, I said, “I don’t think that was quite as ironic.”

He looked at me sadly.

The ice cream bell jangled again. Somewhere, an angel got his wings.

Did you like this Thought? Sure did. No, I did not.