Number 108
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LITTLE LATIN, LESS GEEK*
A couple of people
responded to the case for Latin. Pat S. wrote:
Just
the other day I was talking to my grandson and his girlfriend. [These are high
school kids, by the way.] She wants to become a doctor and has even been to the
hospital to observe an operation. I asked her if she was studying Latin. She
looked at me and said what is that. I said everyone who wants to be a doctor
has to take Latin. She said not anymore. They don't even offer it in most
schools anymore, she told me. That might be just in this neighborhood, I don't
know. I never studied it but always thought it was a necessary part of becoming
a doctor.
It's too bad schools don't require any language
anymore, and Fred thinks it's not even required of medical students now. But —
how do you get through high school, and be bright and ambitious enough to want
to be a doctor, WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING WHAT LATIN IS? I suppose the question,
"What is Latin?", never appeared on any test this girl had to take,
so she didn't study for it, and the word never came up in her reading.
By the way, tonight on The Daily
Show, in his bit "This Week in God" Stephen Colbert used the
phrase "machina ex deus" (machine out of god) instead of "deus
ex machina" (god out of a machine). Maybe it was a very subtle joke, but
maybe he just got it backwards.
* A famous remark about Shakespeare's
education is that he had "little Latin and less Greek."
The Writer's Digest editors report that in the February 2005 issue, Miriam Sagan discusses how to use poetry to get in touch with your spiritual side in "Connecting to the Divine." When writing religious poetry, Sagan notes:
"Avoid rhyme, at least most of the time. Too often, rhyme creates a singsong effect that’s more nursery rhyme than prayer. Reflect serenity by using lines that are long enough to be broken into two thoughts."
Sagan perhaps hasn't read religious poetry that rhymes without being sing-song, for instance "The Hound of Heaven" or "Paradise Lost" or maybe "God's Grandeur". I find that most amateur poets, whether they attempt to rhyme or not, have a problem with meter. They just don’t have an ear for rhythm.
And how does breaking a long line into two thoughts "reflect serenity"? I'm clueless — or is it Sagan?
ACTIONABLE MILITARY
INTELLIGENCE
Sharp-eyed Rob Z.
reports the following from the January 17, 2005, New Yorker article,
"Battle Lessons" by Dan Baum:
“.
. . [military] experts gave officers tips on everything from 'actionable
intelligence' to unit finance."
I don't think they were referring to intelligence you can get sued
over, but I may be wrong. Use Ctrl F [or Find] to find “actionable” in the
article in question.
This appears to be a quote so The
New Yorker can't be blamed, and Dan Baum is to be commended for adding the
quotation marks, adding that subtle note of disdain. But it's worth dropping
the editors a line to mention it, which I did. No answer, though.
Here's the solution to the Christmas rebus:
Here's to tell U that [t+hat] I hope U will be [bee, bumble] happy Christmas Day. I [eye from a hook-and-eye clothing fastener] wish U many [man+y] gifts, a sled [sled], some books [books], perhaps a gun [rifle or BB gun]. I'd like to be [bee] a candle bright a shining on your Christmas tree [tree] To give a bit [drill bit] of cheer to all [awl] and watch [pocket watch] your Christmas fun.
Ellen and Dan solved most of
it, and had the same troubles I did. I was stuck on the drill bit, till Fred recognized it (as did Dan), and
because I used to sew quite a bit, eventually I recognized the eye from a
hook-and-eye set. My dad used to use an awl so I recognized that tool.
But the "a" after "bright" is still a little
puzzling. I added an apostrophe between "a" and "shining"
to make it into an old style of American vernacular — "a candle bright
ashining". We still use this form occasionally, as in "Everyone was
abuzz with the gossip" or "They got on like a house afire."
Plain old news isn't enough in itself anymore. Here's an instance where
a — let me guess — recent graduate of a journalism school is tempting us to eat
our boring news by coyly presenting it as gossip:
"Many Tri-staters believe that a certain interstate is in desperate
need of a makeover."
Readers didn't have to wait too long to find out which interstate that
certain troublesome interstate might be. But it looks like the old rule of news
reporting, give 'em the five Ws at the top, is being phased out.
A TV decorator, looking at a light green wall, said, "If this were a pastel I wouldn't repaint." But it was a pastel. A pastel color is a light, delicate shade, and green can sometimes be light and delicate, as it was on the wall in question. What could she have been thinking? That "pastel" means just pink and blue?
A car dealer is advertising an "entry-level car." This would be a cheap new car. I had quite a few entry-level cars, cheap but not new. You enter the job market in an entry-level job. Then you can buy an entry-level house, also called a "starter home" in the real estate ads, and work your way up to a bigger, more expensive house. And now cars. How about entry-level clothes? Entry-level cuisine? Entry level husbands and wives?
TSUNAMI RELIEF
One of my German
students, Uta Rietmann, is quite a good photographer, and sent me this message:
This is the time of the year we all take some extra time to
reflect on the past and to think about our hopes and goals for the coming year.
In the light of the shocking Tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean, I have spent
some time thinking about what I could do to help other than just make a
donation. I have therefore dedicated my January photo gallery to Tsunami
victims, and I am asking your help to make this a success.
Under virtual photo gallery "STIMMUNGEN" at my homepage,
you find selected photos reflecting emotional moments from my past: www.urietmann.de. You can get this photo card
selection by making a $25 donation to UNICEF "Support South Asia Tsunami
Relief Efforts" U.S. Fund for UNICEF - U.S. Fund for
UNICEF. Send me a copy of your donation receipt (email, mail), and I
will send you the 5 photo cards (incl. envelopes) shown in the web (no other
cost for shipping).
So
take your chance to get a very personal gift for helping people that lost
almost everything.
Thanks
for your support.
Uta
Rietmann
http://www.urietmann.de
or
http://home.fotocommunity.de/uta
And don't forget, you
can translate the German (roughly) by using Babelfish.
Phillip Solomon, a friend of the Pat S. with the Latin story above, has written a novel called Sweet (St.) Kathleen. The jacket reads:
"Albert Sumac, an aspiring playwright, rebels against his military father. He believes that if modern man is to regain his lost nobility he must return to the romantic spirituality which equates the love of a woman with the love of nature. Kathleen Brennan appears to personify this. . . . It is through Kathleen that his relationship with his father takes an unusual turn."
Find the book at Xlibris, where you may also read an excerpt.
______________________________________________
I have a contribution in a new anthology about the
"center of life", Changing
Course: Women's Inspiring Stories of Menopause, Midlife, and Moving Forward,
edited by Yitta Halberstam.
Copyright Rhonda
Keith 2005. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with
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