DRIVING PEACE

An unexpected trip today to buy a new computer power cord yielded a Latin sighting. The salesman/owner of the business, when he found out that I am a Latin teacher, said that I would understand his license plate: PAX-1 and his email address PAX-5. License plates are often an amusing source of Latin and Greek; sometimes I give a creative assignment to my middle-school students to come up with a Latin license plate; my favorite from the past was AMOCANES. I have considered CARPE DM, but I do not feel comfortable with the abbreviation DM as found on tombstones and standing for Dis Manibus, to the spirits of the departed. Driving is dangerous enough.

Latin word of the day: pax. pacis f. peace, and excellent English derivatives include pacifier, pacifist, Pacific, pacificator. The Gunn clan has the motto AUT PAX AUT BELLUM, either peace or war.

IN THE BAG

Another trip to the grocery store yielded one paper bag, to carry the overflow from my two reusable bags. As I was folding it to save in a cupboard for future newspaper recycling, I noticed the company name printed in blue on the bottom: DURO Bag Mfg. Co., and my particular bag was labeled 1/6 DUROTUFF. Happily, my bag was also made in the USA, and carried the date JUN 17 09. I've sent an email to the company which, although their web page features a short history, does not explain whence the name. The company HQ are in Kentucky; if you are in the market for paper bags, check them out here.

I am guessing that the company name derives from duro (1) I endure, last, a really hopeful name for a paper-bag manufacturer. I love paper bags and wish more stores offered them in lieu of plastic.

Vergil uses this verb in Aeneas' speech to the Trojans after the shipwreck caused by Juno and Aeolus in Book One of the Aeneid: Durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis (line 207): Hang on/endure/be tough and keep/save yourselves for better things/good fortune. Two really good English derivatives are durable and obdurate. Another good trade-name is Duracell batteries.

BETTER LIVING THROUGH LATIN

In looking at the link in yesterday's post, I noticed MORE and different Latin words in the colorful seal of Canada (around the outside), so this morning I had to look them up, and lo, ANOTHER great motto, DESIDERANTES MELIOREM PATRIAM, this time from the Order of Canada, with more information here. This new motto is useful for reminding students that a first declension noun (patria, -ae f. homeland, fatherland) can be modified by a third-declension adjective (melior, melius, gen. melioris, better), but the endings must agree (case, number, gender), not rhyme. This motto also reminds students that melior is the irregular comparative form of bonus, a, um good, and gives everyone a chance to learn or review the English derivative ameliorate, to make better.

The present participle, desiderantes, is also of interest to teachers of a certain age who remember listening to a top-40 hit by Les Crane called Desiderata when they were in junior high school. The verb desidero (1) I desire, long for is the source for both verb forms; to revisit that history click here.

FROM SEA TO SEA

Still a novice with a digital camera, I found some of my first photos taken in Canada a year or two ago. I love mail, so even though Canadian stamps cost a fortune AND you need to pay tax on each stamp (!), I still write and mail letters when I can. Here is a picture of the Canadian motto as found on the door handle at the Canada Post Office in Riverport, Nova Scotia. A mari usque ad mare, from sea all the way to sea, a motto useful for reminding students of the ablative i-stem 3rd declension noun, mare, maris n. sea. Here is a little background on the motto.

NOTED WELL

Yesterday I received in the mail the most recent edition of The Blair Quarter Note, the magazine of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. I started receiving this publication after sending a donation to the school in memory of a dulcimer genius, David Schnaufer, who died three years ago. Two quick citations caught my eye; the first was in the cover article about The Blakemore Trio which is preparing to perform a new work, Gates of Silence, by composer Susan Botti. Here is the text which interested me:

In composing Gates of Silence, Botti was inspired by Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid, and the rhythms of loss, renewal, hope and continuation that she feels resonate powerfully today. “I was reading the description of the fall of Troy, and then I’d pick up the newspaper and read about the destruction of a storm—this experience of your home and community being devastated through war or natural disaster, the emotion of that, and the question of how people continue on, “ Botti says. “I read about the people in Greensburg, Kansas. It’s been two years since the terrible tornados that devastated the town. And they’re rebuilding—it’s going to be this incredible green city. It’s remarkable, people’s sense of hope. So the line of the piece is inspired by that in a way—that no matter what we lose, there’s a sense of hope and the ability to look forward. I find it very inspiring and beautiful.” (p. 4-5)

The second bit of Latin that caught my eye was in the Undergraduate news column on p. 14, where I learned that there is a Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology called…Nota Bene (Note Well). I love this stuff!

RUPESTRIAN DELIGHTS

I was delighted to learn the word rupestrian from World Wide Words, an e-newsletter which I receive weekly on Saturdays here in New York. Here you can read the short article. One of my favorite passages from Ovid contains the word rupes, rupis f. cliff, rock; see Ovid's Remedia Amoris, lines 175-190 at The Latin Library: ecce, petunt rupes praeruptaque saxa capellae (Look, the she-goats seek the cliffs and sheer rocks, line 179). Ah, I wonder if past Latin 3 students remember this passage, which also has a fabulous two-line (lines 187-188) summary of the four seasons.

Watchers of PBS may recognize the allusion in the title to riparian delights, as expounded by Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced bou-quet) in the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances, but more on riparian another time.

Civis Romanus sum

Having spent several weeks this summer outside of the United States, I nevertheless tried to keep up with political doings, because however corny it sounds, I feel that I need to be a responsible citizen. I wrote to my senators and state representative to express my opinion on proposed health-care reform legislation. One way I try to inform myself about different issues is to read The Weekly Standard, a weekly political magazine on the right of the political spectrum. I am not interested in discussing politics here, but I do find that the contributors to this and other magazines and blogs are a great source of Latin sightings.

Yesterday's sighting is: Civis Romanus sum (I am a Roman citizen: more information about the origin of this phrase here), a quotation in an article in the Scrapbook section (p. 3) of the Aug 17/Aug 24 2009 issue of The Weekly Standard. The article was quoting a blog post by Max Boot, who was quoting a speech in the House of Commons by Lord Palmerston, Britain's foreign secretary circa 1847. Max Boot ends his post with an opinion which contains today's sighting: "We could use a 'Civis Americanus sum' doctrine today."

BRINGING LATIN TO LIFE

Well, it’s our first full day back in Millerton, NY after a six-week sojourn to Nova Scotia, Canada. I am surfing the internet before beginning my day, and, since our well in NS brings in water loaded with iron, I am looking for water conditioning systems. The first result of my search is the following website, and the name of the company is Vitasalus, Inc. As you will see on the homepage, their motto is “We bring wellness to life.” It is early in the morning, but I appreciate the wordplay; vita, vitae f. life and salus, salutis f. health are our two Latin words of the day, but keep in mind that salus could also be translated as “wellness,” and "wellness" taken in its other English meaning is potentially the condition of one’s water well. "Bring to life” can also have a double meaning. Maybe it is too early in the morning…

AB INITIO

I have loved Latin since the first day my high-school classmate Marianne showed me her Latin book, the first volume of Lingua Latina. In this blog I hope to post a daily sighting of Latin in the world, some with photos. incipiamus!