LUMBERJACK

A lumberjack can raze a tree or raise a tree

What’s so funny about this? Two classic homophones here, r-a-i-s-e, meaning to elevate, and r-a-z-e, meaning to bring down, take down, destroy, etc. and yet if you don’t see the words spelled out and only hear them while someone is talking then you have to listen closely to the context. Otherwise it will be really confusing because the two words have opposite meanings. So let’s look at the title and the two pictures. In the first we see a tall muscular guy, standing by a tree stump and with an axe leaning up against a nearby tree. We’re told he can raze a tree. “Lumberjack” is a name for a professional wood cutter, a guy or girl who makes their living cutting down trees, for lumber which will be used to build houses or make paper or some other use of wood. “Jack” is one of those old English names that can be used generically to refer to any man, but now it can apply to a woman too, I guess. In the second picture we see an entirely different