Adianoeta

Adianoeta: An expression that, in addition to an obvious meaning, carries a second, subtle meaning (often at variance with the ostensible meaning).

I went home to watch TV. I fixed a snack—pork roll on rye with lots of butter. I enjoyed cooking, but so far, all I could cook was pork roll. I cut my finger several times slicing it. I was presently thinking about funnel cake and going to work traveling with the circus. Maybe I would seem smart.

I wanted to seem smart. Some people are actually smart. Not me—the best I could do was seem—barely seem—smart. My first major strategy was to hang out with toddlers at “Dibby Day Care.” It was hard posing as a toddler. I got my toddler clothes at Salvation Army. I had a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with a duck on it. It said “Life is Ducky” on it. I had to pretend I couldn’t read it. I was kind of tall for day care, so I was given the boot. I threw a tantrum, but it didn’t work. I was out, standing on the curb in my toddler suit waiting for an Uber.

I had had an uneventful ride to my front door. I sat on the couch, took a bite of my pork roll sandwich, and flipped on the TV. My favorite show came on the TV. It’s what inspired me to join the circus—Mandrake the Magician. Sometimes he would work part time for Barnum & Bailey doing his magic show and solving circus crimes—like stolen clown noses, or the monkey’s pillbox hat, or admission-ticket forgery. When he solved a crime he would smile, twirl his mustache and say “Magic.” That day, that’s where I got my catch phrase: “Magic.” It floated into my head and cast its spell. Magic.

It had a positive connotation. But, I could shift it to the negative with a sarcastic tone. Now, I sounded in the groove. For example, my girlfriend would suggest we go to the movies and I would say “magic.” She would say “Ewww you’re so cool.” “Cool” is not the same “smart” but it may actually be better.

Now I have a small web-based business where I sell t-shirts and ball caps that say “MAGIC” on them. I am slowly getting rich. Mandrake the Magician has made it possible. It’s magic.

Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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