Catch-22 
noun phrase

- a situation presenting two equally undesirable alternatives  

- an impossible situation where you are prevented from doing one thing until you have done another thing, but you cannot do the other thing until you have done the first thing

- Merriam-Webster / Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 

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PHRASE ORIGIN 

This interesting phrase is the title of Joseph Heller’s 1961 best-selling novel. Catch-22 is the paradox that trapped members of the US military: Anyone who applied to get out of military service on the grounds of insanity was behaving rationally and thus couldn’t be insane. The noun “catch”, among other things, is a “tricky or previously unsuspected condition or drawback” (“That sounds like a good offer, but there may be a catch").

Heller added the number 22 as a random choice after his publishers rejected several other numbers because they had some other significance.

Catch-22 is now an established phrase in the English language - describing a circumstance in which the solution to a problem is defeated by something that is part of the problem in the first place. For instance, in show business: you can’t get an acting job without first hiring an agent, but you can’t hire an agent until you first have an acting job.

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BEST NOVEL EVER WRITTEN !

Shortly before his death in 1999, Heller met an old friend in London. His friend remarked: "You know, Joe, after 'Catch-22' you tried, but you never did write a better novel, did you?" Heller thought for a moment, then replied: "You know, that's right. But then again — neither did anyone else!"

Heller spent ten years writing Catch-22, and the effort shows on every page. The novel's looping, non-linear structure — chaotic on the surface, meticulously constructed beneath — mirrors the very madness it describes. No wonder no one, including Heller himself, ever matched it.

Packed with ironic humour and sharp wit, this classic anti-war novel is highly recommended.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

between a rock and a hard place (the devil and the deep blue sea), boxed in, built-in contradiction, bureaucratic trap, CATCH-22, caught in the middle, chasing your tail, chicken-and-egg problem, circular trap, conundrum, damned if you do and damned if you don't, deadlock, dilemma, dire strait(s), double bind, false choice, gridlock, heads I lose tails I lose, hobble, hobson's choice, hoist with your own petard, impossible choice, impasse, in a bind (fix, jam, knot, pickle, predicament, quagmire, quandary), inescapable contradiction, maze with no exit, no way out, no-win situation, painted into a corner, rigged game, robbing peter to pay paul, running in circles, self-defeating rule, six of one half a dozen of the other, standoff, stalemate, trapped by the rules, up against a wall, vicious circle, whammy, zero-sum trap

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“I’m in a CATCH-22 situation,… I’ve lost my spectacles, but to look for them I need my spectacles.”

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THANKS to Stephen for suggesting today’s OWAD.

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(OWAD Founder)