Tag Archives: EverythingIsBetterWithLatin!™

How Clever Is Your Cleaver?

Posted on July 2, 2026 by JE

I was reading Dougan’s commentary on Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations, which is a perfectly normal thing to do, and at one point (ad 1.49.118) he suggested that the English word clever is derived from deliver. “Interesting, if true,” I thought, and … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, books, language, words | Tagged | Comments Off on How Clever Is Your Cleaver?

Those Crazy Cats

Posted on June 6, 2026 by JE

I was reading Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations, which is a perfectly normal thing to do, and he quoted a line from Ennius, to make some point he thought needed making: egregie cordatus homo, catus Aelius Sextus “Why is he calling Aelius … Continue reading →

Posted in art, books, cats, dogs, grammar, language, music, Rome, words | Tagged , | Comments Off on Those Crazy Cats

“Ixnay on the Ocodilecray!” Lucian Against the Paradoctors

Posted on June 1, 2026 by JE

I’ve been reading a lot of Lucian lately, for reasons that are difficult to explain; maybe I’ll write something about that when I figure it out. But I am finding that he reads better in Greek than he does in … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, Adventures in the Public Domain, AI is a misnomer, ancient art, art, astronomy, books, dogs, language, Myth & Legend, sff, words | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on “Ixnay on the Ocodilecray!” Lucian Against the Paradoctors

Joys of Analogue Media

Posted on October 17, 2025 by JE

One of the long-lost pleasures of vinyl that I’m recently recovering is going through stacks of used LPs at record stores. These are thinner on the ground than they were in the 20th C, but when I find one I … Continue reading →

Posted in books, fantasy art, Morlock, music, sff | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Joys of Analogue Media

CW: Trumpolatry

Posted on August 13, 2025 by JE

Many things about Trumpism are disgusting, but there’s a specific kind of abject ecstacy in Trumpolatry that is really repulsive. “It’s like something from Tacitus,” I always think. Today I ran across the quote I’d been not-quite remembering. clamor vocesque … Continue reading →

Posted in politics, Roman history, Rome, words | Tagged , | Comments Off on CW: Trumpolatry

Two Duds: WAS IT MURDER? by James Hilton and A QUESTION OF PROOF by Nicholas Blake

Posted on August 9, 2025 by JE

Fiction set at upper-class British schools was a popular genre in the 19th and early 20th C, and murder mysteries were the dominant form of popular fiction in the early and mid-20th century, so it’s only natural that cross-pollination would … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, books, mystery, review or meta-review | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Two Duds: WAS IT MURDER? by James Hilton and A QUESTION OF PROOF by Nicholas Blake

The Future of the Past: F&SF, January 1963

Posted on April 22, 2025 by JE

In my ceaseless quest to avoid useful work, I recently opened up an old magazine from my double-stacked shelves of old sf/f zines, this one being the January 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. “This is … Continue reading →

Posted in art, books, cartoon, fantasy, fantasy art, Myth & Legend, review or meta-review, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Future of the Past: F&SF, January 1963

Surfing the Time Waves

Posted on March 29, 2025 by JE

I’m reading the minor declamations of pseudo-Quintilian in Shackleton-Bailey’s great Loeb edition. The idea is to briefly escape the current political nightmare by immersing myself in the weird little stories of these controversiae. It’s not going that well. For example: … Continue reading →

Posted in books, history, language, politics, review or meta-review, Roman history, Rome, television, words | Tagged , | Comments Off on Surfing the Time Waves

Nerves in a bundle? Fall into a morðcrundel!

Posted on February 22, 2025 by JE

I’m rereading Beowulf, preparatory to teaching it in a couple weeks to my Norse Myth class. This kind of thing always involves falling into the dictionary and getting swept away by a tide of weird words. This afternoon’s discovery is … Continue reading →

Posted in academia, art, books, fantasy, fantasy art, language, Myth & Legend, sword-and-sorcery, words, writing | Tagged , | Comments Off on Nerves in a bundle? Fall into a morðcrundel!

Garum + Chili = ?

Posted on January 11, 2025 by JE

I was trying to figure out why you couldn’t say this in Latin, then thought, “Well, it could only improve garum”, and finally realized: oh, they mean cocina latina. Some of these keywords for Bluesky feeds are deeply ambiguous. (“Conan” … Continue reading →

Posted in language, Roman history, Rome, sword-and-sorcery | Tagged , | Comments Off on Garum + Chili = ?