Asinine Thoughts....




Ok, this has nothing to do with Latin but was anyone watching the moon on Friday night @ around 9 pm? Could it be any bigger? There is this scene in a futuristic (and rather low budget) film, the ‘Time Machine’, where the main character travels so far ahead in the future that, when he looks at the moon it’s half broken in pieces by a nuclear war that happened in our own time…there is something comforting in knowing that the Romans saw the exact same moon that we do, because they talk about it all the time, and it is it, same old moon suspended above us for millennia. So I would like to believe that this is what future generations will be seeing too, and not that moon that looked like a crumbled cookie…

Anyhoo, here is a couple of morning thoughts that are closer to home. First of all, after a little ‘research’ (I don’t dare use that word seriously to describe forays into google and wikipedia!) on the etymology of ‘ass,’ I realized that you (vos) were absolutely right to claim that ‘ass’ and ‘ass’ are the same thing—indeed! They both come from the Latin asinus and, although the wikipedia entry doesn’t explain why, I suspect this is because the most notable feature of a donkey was its back side. The place to beat up, to sit on, to load with stuff, to look at when on the road walking behind one’s mounted master. It is because of your notes/comments that I got the idea to investigate this further, a little personal reminder that I learn from all of you as much as you learn with my help. Thanks again to all! And check it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ass

Also: remember the polite Roman negative imperative ‘Noli+ infinitive’? Literally, ‘do not wish to sit/come/eat’? I realized it is alive and well in English. I was walking with a good friend of mine the other day, at the park, with his 7-year old son and their dog. Anyway, the boy was acting up, running away, teasing the dog, and being a complete, well, 7-year old, when my friend called him and with this icy look and deadly calm voice said to him: ‘Niko, you do not want to make me angry.’ I was like, OMG, this is exactly the same structure of ‘noli+inf’, and believe me, the effect was instantaneous!! I wonder what look the Romans took when they used that ‘polite’ prohibition….I swear my friend’s look was the hurt/ lethal you see mobsters wearing when they say things like (>insert Long Island Italian accent>) ‘Tonino, I thought you were my friend---but you are not’ and then shoot Tonino at the back of his head as he is trying to apologize.

Anyway, I am thinking whether I should go to the office or back to bed. Either way, I will be in class tomorrow. Soon then,

EM.