I’m not sure where they’re standing to see the people on top cleaning up. In my experience, the people on top are making the biggest messes because they have no idea what anyone else is doing.
“Cleaning up”, eh? Kind of ambiguous. Tony Augarde wrote:
Words with opposing meanings are also known as contronyms, autantonyms, antagonyms, or even Janus words (from the notoriously two-faced deity of Roman myth). For example, cleave can mean to split apart as well as to knit together, while quite can mean moderately as well as completely, and sanction can indicate allowing something as well as refusing to countenance it (the latter sense being clear in the Peace Pledge Union’s historic pledge: “I renounce war, and will never support or sanction another”).
In his Spoonerisms, Sycophants, and Sops (1988), D. C. Black listed several other contronyms, such as scan, let, moot, wound up, and commencement. If you lease or rent a house, are you occupying it or letting someone else occupy it? If you trip, have you stumbled or are you walking gracefully? If you screen a film, you show it, but if you screen a garden shed, you hide it. If the stars are out, you can see them, but if lights are out, you cannot see them. Does literally mean precisely or is it being used merely for emphasis without being literally true (as in “They were literally killing themselves laffing”)?
Phrases, too, can have opposite senses. First-degree murder is the most serious kind of slaughter, but first-degree burns are the least serious. The opposing senses of dispense with were presumably not noticed by the pharmacist who advertised that he “dispensed with accuracy”.
Nowadays, if you say you are going to take care of somebody, it may suggest that you are going to kill them rather than care for them. The phrase waste no time can mean that you are eager to start something, but that was not the intention when someone (was it Disraeli?) wrote: “Thank you for your manuscript. I shall waste no time in reading it”. My favourite such phrase is with respect, which is often used in conversation or interviews to imply that the speaker has little or no respect for the person addressed!
One of life’s little ironies is that the folks who take out the trash for the rich folks actually know more about what’s going on than anybody else… and they (mostly) only talk about it with each other, if at all. You think the maid/janitor doesn’t know about the bottles in the bottom of your trash can? The needles and dead spoons? The condom wrappers? The night-time parties (and likely, who comes to them)?
http://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2019/12/10This almost comes off beatitudinal, doesn’t it? Better beatitudinal than attitudinal, I suppose. If I may be platitudinal.
GreasyOldTam over 4 years ago
I’m not sure where they’re standing to see the people on top cleaning up. In my experience, the people on top are making the biggest messes because they have no idea what anyone else is doing.
Bilan over 4 years ago
In reality, each one thinks they’re the best.
The Brooklyn Accent over 4 years ago
Consider who gets the golden parachutes and who gets minimum wage.
lagoulou over 4 years ago
A place for everything and everything in it’s place…
kunddog over 4 years ago
isn’t that what 90% of being a janitor is, cleaning up?
COL Crash over 4 years ago
Frazz is wise beyond his years.
1MadHat Premium Member over 4 years ago
Ah, yes. Definitely sufficiently elevated to know who to try to avoid.
Richard S Russell Premium Member over 4 years ago
“Cleaning up”, eh? Kind of ambiguous. Tony Augarde wrote:
Words with opposing meanings are also known as contronyms, autantonyms, antagonyms, or even Janus words (from the notoriously two-faced deity of Roman myth). For example, cleave can mean to split apart as well as to knit together, while quite can mean moderately as well as completely, and sanction can indicate allowing something as well as refusing to countenance it (the latter sense being clear in the Peace Pledge Union’s historic pledge: “I renounce war, and will never support or sanction another”).
In his Spoonerisms, Sycophants, and Sops (1988), D. C. Black listed several other contronyms, such as scan, let, moot, wound up, and commencement. If you lease or rent a house, are you occupying it or letting someone else occupy it? If you trip, have you stumbled or are you walking gracefully? If you screen a film, you show it, but if you screen a garden shed, you hide it. If the stars are out, you can see them, but if lights are out, you cannot see them. Does literally mean precisely or is it being used merely for emphasis without being literally true (as in “They were literally killing themselves laffing”)?
Phrases, too, can have opposite senses. First-degree murder is the most serious kind of slaughter, but first-degree burns are the least serious. The opposing senses of dispense with were presumably not noticed by the pharmacist who advertised that he “dispensed with accuracy”.
Nowadays, if you say you are going to take care of somebody, it may suggest that you are going to kill them rather than care for them. The phrase waste no time can mean that you are eager to start something, but that was not the intention when someone (was it Disraeli?) wrote: “Thank you for your manuscript. I shall waste no time in reading it”. My favourite such phrase is with respect, which is often used in conversation or interviews to imply that the speaker has little or no respect for the person addressed!
Stephen Gilberg over 4 years ago
I had to read the last panel several times to understand it. It doesn’t help that “who’s which” is unusual phrasing.
Concretionist over 4 years ago
One of life’s little ironies is that the folks who take out the trash for the rich folks actually know more about what’s going on than anybody else… and they (mostly) only talk about it with each other, if at all. You think the maid/janitor doesn’t know about the bottles in the bottom of your trash can? The needles and dead spoons? The condom wrappers? The night-time parties (and likely, who comes to them)?
gcarlson over 4 years ago
The opposite of servant isn’t “master.” The opposite of servant is “dependent.”
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 4 years ago
Blog PostsFrazz15 hrs ·
http://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2019/12/10This almost comes off beatitudinal, doesn’t it? Better beatitudinal than attitudinal, I suppose. If I may be platitudinal.