I have a fairly large gun collection, but I’m one of the most non-violent people I know. Since gun owners are seen as “conservative”, I think it’s incongruous that I am in favour of such things as Canada-style government-funded health care, more money for education (including free college education in return for a stint of Public Service), government-funded abortion-on-demand, abolishment of Capital Punishment, treatment for drug addiction instead of jail, and the legalization of marijuana (even though I don’t partake of it myself).
I’m a helicopter pilot. On the ground people think I’m verging on insanity; but put me in a helicopter and I suddenly become the most sane, responsible person on the planet (or just above it, rather.)
I like punk music. But I also like classical, swing, jazz, blues, novelty, Johnny Cash, and alternative rock.
Probably the most striking incongruity of mine is my combination of really dark hair and stunningly pale blue eyes.
One time years ago, a ditzy co-worker asked me how I got my blue eyes. Apparently she believed that blue eyed people couldn’t possibly have brown hair. I began explaining to her a thing or two about genetics and quickly saw that she wasn’t understanding, so I gave up and told her I was wearing tinted contact lenses.
You could have told her that your parents or grandparents were the subject of the CIA’s MK Ultra program, which involved injecting drugs into unwitting test subjects, and your blue eyes and brown hair are the result of a bizarre genetic side effect of the experiment.
In fact, you could “feel guilty” about lying about the contact lenses and “come clean” by telling her the “true reason”, above.
(Note: I have brown hair and blue eyes. When I was a young kid I had blond hair.)
(Anecdote: A friend had a 40-something female co-worker. As the friend was discussing the Lorena Bobbit case with some other staff, the ditzy friend came up and asked with a confused expression on her face, “But how did she cut through the bone?”)
I generally can’t stand pop music. My car radio is usually tuned to WGBH in Boston which is NPR, classical, jazz and blues with a lot of celtic and folk on the weekends.
But if I’m radio surfing and “Mambo #5” comes on, I crank that mother to 11.