Re: Ask Carl

[Carl Glover <glover@msmary.edu>]

Dear Paula,
	"The odds are good, but the goods are odd."  ANTIMETABOLE--the
repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order
(Corbett).  You are probably familiar with some more familiar
antimetaboles, such as "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"
and "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for
your country."  
	The two clauses are also isocolons, since they contain the same
number of syllables.
	I also thought it might be an antithesis, but that is clearly not
the case since the figure does not contain opposing ideas.

					Warm regards,

					Carl W. Glover
					glover@msmary.edu

On Thu, 14 Nov 1996 gillespiep@vmsb.csd.mu.edu wrote:

> Our list might be dead, but we're always ready for one of these 
> questions: 
> 
> Last summer Alice Gillam was in Alaska for a vacation.  She said that the
> ratio of men to women is really high, and that there are mugs and T-shirts
> and postcards that say, "The odds are good, but the goods are odd." 
> 
> What figure of speech is that?  
> 
> Paula Gillespie
> Marquette University
>