What's in a name?

Hey, been a few days, I hope that all of you are having an enjoyable summer. Wanted to share a tidbit with you; y'know how I'm always trying to caution against over reliance on spellcheckers? Well, it's got a name! Yes, the technical term for a spellchecker replacing a misspelt word with another (usually inappropriate). It's called "the Cupertino Effect" and it's got an interesting history.

Funny thing...

Carolina Theater has A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Forum listed in the coming soon... If you've not seen this, trust me, it captures more than any other movie, the bawdy and zany humor of Roman comedy.

Some World Cup fun...

Singular Plural
N. vuvuzela vuvuzelae
G. vuvuzelae vuvuzelarum
D. vuvuzelae vuvuzelis
Ac. vuvuzelam vuvuzelas
Ab. vuvuzela vuvuzelis

Summer has officially begun and I have officially gone off the deep end.

The End of (work)Days

We just wrapped up the last official workday of the year. Technically, I don't have to be back at Kestrel until August... But let's face it. I have no life. ;) So drop in and you may find me working the room over, hiding from the YMCA or actually planning for the Fall.

The Infinities by John Banville

I picked up The Infinities for a couple reasons: first, it might serve as a read-aloud or optional reading next year and second, I wanted to read something recreational dangit. In short, the story is set in an English manor house where the patriarch, a famous mathematician, lays dying. The wife and adult children deal with the implications, etc, while Hermes looks on (narrating) and Zeus pursues the oldest son's wife.

I'm about a quarter of the way through and... Well, there's some NSFW material. Nothing explicit, but let's face it. It's Zeus. :\ So, not a read-aloud. It's also very, very British. A lot of internal meanderings, slower pace, etc. As I read, I imagine the Masterpiece Theater rendering on PBS.

The Goddess Suite

The Goddess Suite is "an ode to the female experience and a celebration of the spirit of womanhood" using the voices of Greek goddesses. It was composed in 1986 but will be preformed four times this summer around Chapel Hill and Durham. You can find the official website, dates and locations here and if you want to listen to it, they have some free clips too. Also, the composer and one of the producers will be interviewed on WUNC at noon today.

Bring back Latin: the only way forwards is backwards

Bring back Latin: the only way forwards is backwards

Another late-breaking extra credit.

Last minute extra credit

No, I am not done entering grades and, yes, I have been accepting some last minute extra credit. A couple of examples from my inbox this morning:

1. Mysterious altar found in Roman fort. Ooo... Spooky... Ok, not really, but pretty cool when you think that Gauls based in northern England were grooving to a deity from central Asia. It's easy to forget how cosmopolitan the Empire was.

2. Making Ireland Roman. A book review blog post on a scholarly book. Granted, there are more exciting items out there for your summer reading, but consider this statistic the author cites, "Around 1,000 printed books in Latin were written by Irish authors between 1490 and 1750..." May not sound like a lot now but... Ven did Herr Gutenberg beginz hiz printingz? Ja. Iz veeery interesting.

Facebooking across the universe

I've been going back and forth about page versus group versus community page etcetera, etcetera, etcetera... But I opted for the generic page and, well, here it is. Any posts here will cross-post to the Facebook page, so you can like it there and just watch the feed through your Facebook account.

Sword and Sandals

Two reports from NPR (my weekends are very dull you know) which I heard; the first concerns the rash of movies this year from the so-called "sword and sandal" genre. They look back at the classics of the genre (Ben Hur and Spartacus) and have some fun with the not-so-classics (Son of Hercules). If you listen to the report or read the transcript, they also discuss a movie not mentioned in the write up, Agora, with Rachel Weisz.

The second, asks the provocative question: "Were Botticelli's Venus and Mars Stoned?" 'Nuff said really. I'm curious though, what do some of you think about the evidence Bellingham presents?

Cleopatra’s Underwater Kingdom

So, while we wrap up the last day of the year, I wanted to share an extra-credit assignment which a student turned in. “Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt,” at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, reviewed by Edward Rothstine of the New York Times. If you find yourself traveling to Philadelphia this summer, you might want to check it out.

"Amo, Amas" by John O'Keefe

Amo, Amas, I love a lass
As a cedar tall and slender;
Sweet cowslip's grace is her nominative case,
And she's of the feminine gender.

Rorum, Corum, sunt divorum,
Harum, Scarum divo;
Tag-rag, merry-derry, periwig and hat-band
Hic hoc horum genitivo.

Can I decline a Nymph divine?
Her voice as a flute is dulcis.
Her oculus bright, her manus white,
And soft, when I tacto, her pulse is.

Rorum, Corum, sunt divorum,
Harum, Scarum divo;
Tag-rag, merry-derry, periwig and hat-band
Hic hoc horum genitivo.

Oh, how bella my puella,
I'll kiss secula seculorum.
If I've luck, sir, she's my uxor,
O dies benedictorum.

Rorum, Corum, sunt divorum,
Harum, Scarum divo;
Tag-rag, merry-derry, periwig and hat-band
Hic hoc horum genitivo.

John O'Keefe (1747 – 1833). I heard this on the radio late last month and though I've shared it with a couple classes, I want to share it here.

First post!

Here it is ladies and gentle-Kestrels, the first post of the new KHS Latin blog. The year is almost over and I hope that you will come by from time to time and see what I'm planning (and what I'm posting).