I'm not a big fan of Maureen Dowd, but her Sunday column is pretty good--"Are We Rome? Tu Betchus!"
I wanted to like it -- I mean, come on, I'm the first to admit that I'm a huge intellectual snob -- but after the first few paragraphs I got bruises from being beaten over the head with references to Seneca and the highly desirable study of dead languages.
Because THAT will fix the economy.
In high school, I translated swatches of Julius Caesar’s “The Battle for Gaul” from Latin to English while nibbling cheese crackers.
Aw, Mo -- I bet people who are losing their houses can REALLY relate to that! Way to write an op-ed that cuts to the heart of the matter!
Latin??? Seriously??? FAIL.
I just liked the bits like the one I quoted that mixed modern idioms into pseudo-Latinate form. The rest of it I sort of skimmed, to be honest.
(I could never get through the edition of Pooh Bear in Latin, either.)
I am clearly not a foodie, because until clicking I thought Barb was saying that Roaring Forties was a singing group.
Um, whoops? ::blushes:: I didn't realize-- figured the serving suggestions would imply that it was food, esp. given the cheesy tenor of the discussion.
Still... it's a really, really good blue cheese.
Well, I thought your post was just multi-tasking!
In high school, I translated swatches of Julius Caesar’s “The Battle for Gaul” from Latin to English while nibbling cheese crackers.
She means the pre-made, six-in-a-package, cracker with yellow in between cheese crackers, right?
Dow is up 936 points.
I guess they're happy that the governments are bailing out all the banks.
Yay?
We did not make the first possible earlier flight. In fact that flight may now have a mechanical, which doies not bode well for us making the second option. We are charging the computer in order to watch cartoons while waiting.
I just went to the Obama website to get some numbers to call, and they gave me 25! Too many, people! The last time I did this (Kerry? can't remember), they gave five at a time, and I often did more than one set of five, but 25???
Latin??? Seriously??? FAIL.
My mother loved Latin. When she did her education degree, she studied Latin too, despite opposition from the administration, on the grounds that it was being phased out of school curricula and she'd never use it. She had to go to another uni for that one course. (And when they checked her existing Latin abilities, they threw up their hands in horror at her accent and exclaimed "You went to a Catholic school, didn't you?")
I think she was really rather happy tha I did a year of Latin at Uni too.
