Your RDA of Irony

On This Day…

In A.D. 79 Mt. Vesuvius erupted. The last press release from the Pompeii Chamber of Commerce is considered a masterpiece of public relations. Among its now classic evasions and euphemisms are “property values have never been a better bargain” and “Mt. Vesuvius uses all-natural ingredients.”

In 410 the Visigoths took Rome. Roman military resistance was theoretical and lasted a day. However the civilian population showed fanatical resistance by consistently overcharging the Visigoths at restaurants and for cab rides. The Visigoths had to sack the city just to break even.

In 1572 the Huguenots discovered that the Church does permit one type of birth control. A press spokesman for Catherine de Medici justified the St. Bartholomew’s Massacre, explaining that Calvinism was a definite threat to the French fashion industry. “The idea of wearing black in Spring really is much worse than genocide.”

  1. David in Tenn says:

    Were it not for the Roman resistence being labeled “theoretical”, the comment re wearing black in the the spring would have been the most comical squib I have seen since Fred Russell quit typing.

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