Could Face Certain Death

I love words. A good pun is like music to my ears. Wordsmithing is kind of fun (at least for a while). I guess being the son of an English professor has helped me to love how people put words together. Two incidents this week have made me laugh.
The first I saw on a sign at the German-American Center here in Omaha. It said, celebrate Oktoberfest here, September 19,20. Now, I thought the whole reason they called it "Oktoberfest" was because it was in October. They're going to celebrate and get the beer flowing a little early here. You know, any excuse for a good drunken spree. It doesn't have to be October. Perhaps they should reconsider and call it "Septemberfest."
The other was something on FOX News last night. In talking about the evacuation of Galveston and Houston for the onslot of Hurricane Ike, it quoted someone as saying, "Get out or you could face certain death." Does anybody else find that strange? "Certain death" means you will die. "Could" means you could survive. To put "could" and "certain death" in the same sentence seems like a contradiction. Could = perhaps, there's a chance, maybe. Certain = it will happen, there is no way out, it's a sure-fire thing. Oh, well. It's good to see everyone still has a sense of humor in these days of the political scene. I hope your day is a good one. JW

My Dad (remember, he was an English professor) used to say, "I only made one mistake in my life. And when I done it, I seen it." He also used to say, "English is my most fondest subject I am of."