At 18:42:27 on Sun, 25 Dec 2005, Pawel Piotr Stawski (Email Removed) wrote in : This is good. We said unpleasant things to you, eventually, because you had already said unpleasant things to us - whether or not you realised that you were doing so

After the dust of all that has settled, there only remains the question of whether the rank and file of British public *think* it's a ***-take of Americans, regardless of where it came from and how it was intended. That seems to be much less

Oh no, I meant no irony, really! Actually, I trust Webster's dictionaries and I have an old edition of their "Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary" which I use very often. What I meant was that not every colloquial, or very infirmal, expression

Many British people claim that Americans do not understand irony, but this is both unfair and untrue. In fact, based on what I've seen in AUE, it's a bit ironic. Michael West Melbourne, Australia

Exactly what is irony? I know it isn't what most people think it is, but I can't really understand what the dictionary says it is. Would a person being hit by an ambulance be ironic? Maelin None of the things that happen in

Obviously I've tried dictionaries but I can't get my head round what sardonic means. How is it distinct from ironic? Could someone put it into the context of a sentence to clarify the distinction. Any help greatly appreciated. An ironic