Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in The Mad Latinist's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
12:49 am	Iterum feci. Est nox ultima, et cras peractum erit Conventiculum... sed vix quicquam in ephemeride scripsi. Causa sane est Cena Romana—quae modo facta est hodie nocte, et feliciter. Fortasse in proximis annis potero, deo volente, me melius parare ne tantum tempus medio conventiculo sumat. Current Mood: fatigatus (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
1:01 am	Fessus summatim dicam. Incepimus fabulas scaenicas scribere (et fortasse aliquid inerit ex ... A!?), Locuti sumus de imaginibus de fabulis Livii (ex quo altera fuit Rubentis pictoris), Africane pransi (pullum ex arachide, sed non satis huius leguminis infuit!), praefectus sum *iterum* gregi de textu legens sed etiam sine praeparatione non *omnino* defui, audivimus Scottium dicacissimum acroasin dantem. Denique cum Pistorio, Luciana, Racaëlaque cenam habui apud Smashburger. Isicae et tuberosolana optima erant! Horas ibi terruimus ex Satyricōn libro praelegentes. Bonum fuit quia numquam paro lectiones meas, et, hoc anno, semper praeficior gregi legentium! Ergo si iterum cras fiet, paratus ero. cŏlus -i, m. "distaff" feretrum -i, n. "bier" scabellebum -i, n. "footstool", "foot-castinet" (ergo fortasse "tap-shoe"?) causor -ari -atum "debate; give as a reason or pretext, blame" desidia -æ, f. "slacking off" (verb desido, adj. desidiosus) clipeum post vulnera sumere "to take up a shield after wounds" i. e. to close the barn door after the horse has bolted. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
7:12 pm	Mane ad Centrum Gaines perveni, et sessioni introductoriae adfui. Sed numerus hornotinus maximus est et dificilius etiam solito fuit omnium meminisse. In brevi pausa foras exivi et quando indui saccum tergis meis, omissi eum apertum esse, et magna vi computatrum gestabili ad pavimentum latericium prostravi. VAE MIHI! Computatrum damnum accepit, sed re vera miror tantillum esse. Sed in dies videbimus num damnum crescat :/ Sessione altera imaginem descripsimus, iterum tertiam ex Progressu Ganeonis—annis enim praeteritis saltem semper hac imagine usi sumus. Cum Accio pransi Coreane—quomodo aliter cum Iapone, nonne? Sessione tertia imagines Hectoris trucidati, et Patrocli funeris descripsimus, quarta dux eram. Verum ut confitear, cum mihi placeat generatim sessiones ducere, in sessionibus de textibus displicet. Textus hodiernus erat ex Horatii Sermonum libro secundo, de mure rustico mureque urbano. Hic textus tandem aliquando erit fundamentum operum scaenicorum. Id mirum esse, quia anno hesterno eodem argumento usi sunt parvuli. Nunc fessissimus cenam exspecto. Vocabula: sūra -æ, f. "calf (of leg)" syndon -onis, f. genus panni quod et lectis adhibetur, et cadaveribus inhumandis, c.f. Ang. "Sheet" (sed provenitne de Æg. šnd.wt?) gānĕa -æ, f. (seu -um -i, n.) inter tabernam et lupanar "dive, brothel" gănniō -īre "bark, yelp, growl; chatter" post scriptum: Bonum est Accium denique revidere! Sed nunc desidero tales quales sunt Stephanus Albertusque. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
1:44 am	♪ Est hora Con-ven-ti-cu-li! ♪ Salvete o diu non salutati Latine legentes, denique inter Conventiculum Latinum Lexintoniense denuo sum. Anno proximo Conventiculum insigne fuit, sed occupatius eram quam qui ephemerin interretialem scriberet—maximi momenti sunt haec duo: primum quod acroasin dedi, dein quod in opere scaenico grex alius me iocose repraesentabant, sed fortasse alio die conabor rem enarare. Hoc autem ipso anno spero me minus sub rerum onere opressum fore. Usque adhuc haec sunt facta: Heri profectus sum, dein Diana compellata statim reversus, nam die maturius iter inceperam. Hodie denuo profectus sum, et hoc primo in multis anno ad cenam intoductoriam adveni. Rubrum tectum interrete gratis offert, tandem aliquando! Sed interrete nunc cum vi electrica defficit. Ut videtur transformatorium efractum est, et fortasse diu in tenebris erimus Umbris circumdantibus, me somnolento, sessionibus cras incohaturis, opus est dormire. Valete! Commentatio vi electrica reddita proscripta (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
2:51 am	By now you've probably heard what happened to the "Big Butter Jesus." The idea that God strikes people down with lightning really comes more from Greco-Roman mythology than anything biblical. Still, I can't resist quoting Lucretius on this one: tum fulmina mittat et aedis saepe suas disturbet (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
11:55 am	Sordes  You know that pterosaur, Sordes pilosus [SIC]? I'm thinking it's common name should be "hairy mess." (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 31st, 2010
11:00 pm	Quotable quote "So when Treebeard tries to explain the reasons behind his ponderous demeanor, is that a case of the Ent justifying the mien?" -"Hapax", in a comment on Slacktivist   Current Mood: punny (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010
5:57 pm	You think you can handle Paris Troika? Today's Wonderella uses that "Paris Troika" pun, which has not yet become a cliché (but surely will some day—it's just too natural). In the comic Paris Troika is a super-villain who has the ability to split herself into three duplicates of herself. Wonderella is not impressed, because she's easily powerful enough to beat three people. You can go read the comic to find out what happens next. Why am I blogging this? Well, notice the alt-text (if you don't know, to see the alt-text, hover your mouse over the comic, and it should pop up): "Is it Parises or Parii" OK, this hits on one of my pet peeves, which I have meant to blog about for ages: this weird -ii thing. People seem to think that -ii is the plural of just about any Latin noun. This is aggravated by the fact that English pronounces most unstressed vowels more-or-less the same, so it's easy to lump words that end in, say, -as, -es, -is, or -ys in with -us. This is jocularly extended to English words that sound vaguely Latin, like, say, Elvis. It's a joke. Yes, I get it. But to anyone who knows anything about Latin it comes across as just plain weird. There are, you see, many Latin plural suffixes (-ae, -i, -es, -us, and for neuters -a), but only a few Latin words form their plural in -ii. Specifically substantives of the second declension that happen to end in -ius in the nominative singular. So it's a little weird that -ii has come to be the emblematic Latin plural used for this joke.1 Nor am I convinced that it's always a joke. I'm pretty sure at least some people genuinely believe that things like syllabii, apparatii and (God help us) penii are genuine Latin forms. In fact they would be the plurals of, respectively, *syllabius, *apparatius and Penius. (If you're curious, the correct Latin plurals are syllabi,2 apparatus (with a long u), and penes). I have even on occasion seen such monstrosities as Starbucksii and Apiciusii. That latter one really threw me for a loop because the proper plural of Apicius is in fact Apicii. In this case, -ii was, for once, right, so the person really had to go that extra mile to get it wrong! So what is the "correct" Latin plural of Paris? Well, actually there's two ways to handle this: The city of Paris was called Lutetia in Roman times. The later name, still used today, derives from the name of the Gaulish tribe who lived in the area, the Parisii. So, even though I kvetched about the horrid Apiciusii above, one can easily make a case for Parisii. The personal name Paris would be Parides (three syllables, stressed on the first) in the plural. And don't even get me started on virii!  1. There are only a few Latin words used in English with a -ii plural, the most common of which is probably "radii." I assume the actual reason this suffix gets overused in English is because it is extremely common in scientific names, but as a genitive singular rather than a nominative plural. This is because -ii (implying a nominative -ius) is the preferred method to Latinize and genitivize a vernacular male name in biological Latin—few biologists nowadays know Latin, and even fewer have "official" Latin names, so this simplifies things greatly. 2. Well, syllabi inasmuch as syllabus is a Latin word at all. In Classical Latin it only exists as a ghost word, resulting from misreadings of sittybus and syllabe (in Cicero and Augustine respectively). But I think it's fair to say the word exists now, even if its origin is spurious. Cf. diaphanus's Pluralitas Latina. Current Mood: ranty (19 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
2:45 am	Well, I'm all old again. Current Mood: awake (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 20th, 2009
5:46 pm	Apollo About ten Conventicula ago: Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 18:06:09 -0700 Sender: [My email address] From: [My email address] Subject: [Grex Latine] Hodie Lexintoniae Iustinus omnibus Sodalibus Lexingtonia salutem!      Ut forsitan sciatis, veni ad Conventiculum Latinum Lexingtoniense, quod iucundissimum est. Non autem possum, pro dolor, saepius ad interrete accedere.      Huardus, gregalis qui in Conventiculo erat, mihi dixit hodie esse diem annivarsarium adventus hominum in Lunam. Hanc ob rem breve scripsi carmen, quod spero vobis fore gratum. Sic, appulsa aquila ille Niallus fortibus ulnis   in Luna faustam deposuit caligam: "Ecce, homini gradus exiguus, cum sit cito factus   Humano saltus maximus est generi!" (Notanda: appellere = navem in terram agere Niallus = Neal fortibus ulnis = aut epitheton aut nomen Nialli      Sunt alia notanda, sed haec praesertim...)      Esto, mihi est eundum, sed vobis mox aut Lexingtoniae aut domi (id est Madisoniae) rescribam. PS. Aloisius et David Morgan qui quoque adsunt vos omnes salutant! The Conventiculum is a very different place indeed, nowadays, but some things don't change. And I've been meaning to post this poem forever. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
6:45 pm	Conventiculum Lexintoniae sum. Ephemerin scribere gestio, sed tot mihi faciunda ut non possim. Argh! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 19th, 2009
11:35 am	Greek History Exam I PASSED!!! Current Mood: jubilant (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
5:01 pm	Greek History Exam I have been studying for this damn Greek History Exam for... well you don't want to know how long! But I've been working really intensely on it for the last school year. It's been driving me crazy... I am not a historian by nature. At least I figured out I could make myself do the readings by simultaneously making myself ride a stationary bike—that part at least has been great for my health. Today I finally took it. I've been studying (or rather trying with moderate success to force myself to study) like a maniac for the last several days. This morning as I pulled up on campus, I could not believe how scared I was. When I talked to people I could not hide the terror from my voice. But once I started, I calmed down. There were three sections: The first was ID's. I couldn't get every one, but as the instructions said to do as many as you can, I hope I'm not expected to. The second and third were essay questions (the former on methodology, the latter on historical themes). I had to pick one question from each. I confess the deck was somewhat stacked in my favor. Initially I tried not to take the bait, by going with "What are the methodological problems of using Greek comedy as a historical source?" and "Was Athens a typical Greek city-state?" Two things I know about, but which aren't my special pet subjects. But I quickly said "@&#* it!" and switched over to "What are the methodological problems of using Demotic papyri as a historical source?" and "How 'Hellenized' was Ptolemaic Egypt?" So in the end, I probably did fine on both essays too. Did I pass? Well, I guess I'll find out in about a week! In the mean time I'm SO GLAD IT'S DONE! Now I'm off to relax by doing some yoga & tækwondo. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
10:50 pm	Mother's Day My grandmother turned 95 this weekend. Every year I get to spend with her is a precious gift. But I am a greedy bastard. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
10:27 pm	I CAN HAZ REBLE BASE? AT-ATs: not just for xmas HT: Margaret, via email. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
12:13 pm	Tragedy of the Goat-Stayer AIGamemnon (ht iterum via Facebook) (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
12:10 pm	I'm unexpectedly single for Valentine's Day, Beth still being in Beloit. Now I have to figure out what to do with my spare opera ticket. BTW, here's Eisenbraun's 2009 Valentine's Day Contest. Not as good as good as last year's ;) OK, OK, I didn't submit anything this year, and my attempts to get Allisa and her Mycenological friends to submit something in Linear B were apparently unsuccessful (or at least any output so produced did not win even an "honorable mention.") Oh well, maybe next year. Oh, and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
5:47 pm	A really bad day I've been having one hell of a bad day. Well honestly the whole week has been crazy. It started last Friday. Beth was going to Wisconsin to visit her family, but her car wouldn't start. Because we didn't handle this as well as we should of, she ended up having to borrow my car for the weekend. That was OK because my mother was in town, and she has a car here. Then soon after Beth arrived at her parents' house, they received a call that her brother had suffered a near fatal head injury. So she's been with him at the hospital ever since. Luckily he seems to be doing well now, or as well as can be expected, and if they haven't already released him, they may soon. But meanwhile the stress has been crushing them. I've lent her support via phone when I could, but it's been difficult. Since Beth has been away all this time, my Mom has let me borrow her car. Great, so I took it to the appointment I had on campus this morning. After the appointment I went to do some research on campus for a couple hours, until my 3:00 appointment downtown. Well, I was enjoying my research so much that I pushed it to the last second, and got to the car around 2:30. Then I noticed I didn't have the keys. Just to make matters worse, I had already paid my parking fee, which meant I was expected to get the car out within like 5 minutes before the ticket became invalid. The parking office could get me out after that, but they were closing at 4. So I looked everywhere. My pockets. My backpack. In the car. Under the car. Every room of the library I'd been in. Most of these places more than once. Nothing. I started leaving my phone number with the various lost and founds. Did I mention it was pouring rain this whole time? Having searched for nearly an hour, missing my appointment entirely, I went back to the parking office and told them I still hadn't found the key. They very kindly worked out a way I could exit after they closed. At this point I'd already looked everywhere, so I sat down and thought. The last thing I had done as I was leaving the car was to put a bunch of electronics back in the side-door pocket, where I had found them. Could the key be in there? Well, at first glance no. But it's hard to see into the pocket from outside, and sure enough, when I leaned over the hood and squinted through the front windshield, there they were. Remembering I had a set of spare keys at my house, I hired a cab to take me there and back. I grabbed the keys and left my backpack, figuring I didn't need to lug it around anymore. I came back, the rain still pouring, ran up the parking structure and... they key didn't work! I went to Campus Police to ask if they could get me in. Sure they could! Oh wait, no, nevermind. The one officer they had who could do it was off duty today. So I finally relented and called AAA. Why hadn't I done it so far? Well, I had a feeling they might take a while. Yes, yes they might. They're currently running about two hours. So I've gone and taken refuge from the pouring rain in the library. If I hadn't left my backpack at home, this would be a perfect time to continue my research. Unfortunately I'm stuck here without my bibliography, and even if I were to venture unguided stacks, I might lose my phone signal, and, as things stand, that would be very foolish. Well, the one good thing about this is it's a perfect opportunity to start using my blog again! UPDATE: I finally got into the car at sevenish. Just got home (at eight—I stopped for some groceries). I'm hoping I have the energy to work out still. Current Mood: aggravated (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
12:29 pm	a sigh of relief CONGRATULATIONS, U.S.A. Now I can breathe again. Current Mood: overjoyed (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
2:42 am	Blog rating This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: cum (8x) suck (1x) Um, yeah... is it really fair to judge me based on "cum"? I guess that's what I get for speaking Latin. (6 Comments |Comment on this)