Here's what happens when you're teaching college these days: humorous cultural references go right over the head of many of your students.
This was brought home when I was teaching a humour writing class (ages 18-50), and started with a survey of the greatest skits of all time.
Remember this one? Wayne and Shuster (probably our best export from Canada) and the infamous
Rinse the Blood off my Toga.
Frank goes into Cicero's Bar (I have to snicker at that alone!) and strolls up to the bar:
Frank: "Give me a martinus.
Cicero: "You mean a martini."
Frank: "If I want more than one, I'll ask for it!"
Zing! Over the head of everyone in my class.
Honestly. Did they all miss the Latin slogan on Roger Ramjet? (let's see who remembers, in the comments)
Now, I went to high school in the mid-70s, when Latin had pretty well disappeared in BC and Ontario high schools. However, I had an Italian mother, and a Brit father who was a lover of Latin and the arcane. So early on, when learning street Italian, I got a taste of the Latin basics.
Things like (feel free to correct my spelling):
Nil illegitimi carborundum
(a Dad favourite, which he translated to: Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down
Which brings me to this nifty little book that I was given a few years back.
LATIN FOR ALL OCCASIONS, by Henry Beard.
Truly, I wonder how the rest of the world manages without these handy translations. (Notice I've chosen ones that might be especially useful to my er family.)
I have a catapult. Give me all the money or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
Di! Ecce hora! Exor mea me necabil!
I didn't expect you home so soon!
Non sperabam te domum tam cito revenire!
Do you by any chance happen to own a large, yellowish, very flat cat?
Estne tibi forte magna feles fulva et planissima?
Things to say to your Lawyer: You charge how much an hour?
Quantum in una hora imputas?
Watch out - you might end up divided into three parts, like Gaul.
Prospice tibi - ut Gallia, tu quoque in tres parte dividaris.
You and whose army?
Tutene Atque cuius exercitus?
What did you call me?
Quid me appellavisti?
And finally...bringing it back to me...
A comedian, huh?
ita vero esne comoedus?
(Any errors in spelling are mine.)
Next time I'll talk about how not a single person in my college fiction writing class could tell me the plot of Gone with the Wind, because nobody had seen it. (Let alone read it.) <Hits head against desk>
Melodie Campbell laments the demise of cultural references while writing wacky stuff in the True North. The Toronto Sun called her Canada's Queen of Comedy.
Melodie, I share your lament. Worse are the opportunitiesm for flirtation. (Kindly forgive spelling or grammatical errors.)
ReplyDelete• Puella pulchra est.
• Ego amo te. (more correctly: Te amo.)
Pardon my intrusion — My damn Gaul is divided into three parts.. I'll be on my Appian Way.
Love it, Leigh! And so close to Italian :) I may just steal that last line :)
DeleteBartender says, "How many?"
ReplyDelete"Five," the Roman says and holds up two fingers.
Now That one takes me back!
DeleteA fun post indeed, Melodie. I took four years of Latin in high school, and,
ReplyDeletewas delighted to be able to read it again (sort of).
Edward Lodi
Thanks for that comment, Edward! Oh, how I wish I'd had four years...Melodie
Deletei pluribus Lumpum went over my head at age ten however as I got older and understood it was a play on i pluribus unum (from one many). So it was from one a lump. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteMIKE
I'm so glad you remembered that! Such a fun twist. I love that sort of droll educated humour. Melodie
DeleteDon't let the bastards grind you down? I've seen it written as "Illegitimi non carborundum". I didn't study Latin in school though. All I know of it is a few Latin medical words.
ReplyDeleteThat's terrific, Elizabeth! I wish Dad were still here to explain the grammar to me. Yes, I know those medical words too (was a hospital director in my past) Melodie
DeleteI was telling someone not to let the bastards grind them down just the other day, Mel. And wasn't the Latin translation of Winnie the Pooh a bestseller not so long ago? (Just looked up Winnie ille Pu on Amazon. How long ago is 1991? And how do you say, "It's relative," in Latin?) My current challenge in the I-can't-believe-none-of-them-get-this department is the title of my new poetry book, The Old Lady Shows Her Mettle. It's a play on J.M. Barrie's play, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, but Gen Z and the millennials have never heard of Barrie. "Not even Peter Pan?" a friend my own age said. "They think Disney wrote Peter Pan," I said.
ReplyDeleteOh for goodness sake - Disney wrote Peter Pan?? Yes, I'm laughing and crying at the same time, Liz! Thanks for this comment! Melodie
DeleteLOL - good column. I remember when my daughter came home from school exclaiming "mou irikle!" (i.e., my hercules, and feel free to correct my spelling, too!). It was a definite improvement over OMG.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun, Anna! For a while my eldest daughter was using her University Italian to talk to me as a secret language (father and sister didn't know it.) Of course, my Italian is street Sicilian... :)
DeleteI still have the Wayne and Shuster vinyl LP with this sketch on it. It also has the Shakespearean baseball game, a play-by-play in blank verse. Years ago, we listened to this sketch as a warm-up before performing Shakespeare's Richard III in a local theater...
ReplyDeleteSteve, you have made my day! So you'll understand when I tell you that in high school, I was known for my pretty accurate version of "Julie, Don't go! Don't go, I told him. If I told him once, I told him a thousand times, Julie, don't go! But did he listen?""
DeleteI tried to take Latin in high school, but the stopped offering it the year I signed up. Not enough students. So I took Spanish instead. The only thing I remember from class is "la vida es suena." Life is a dream.
ReplyDeleteDos cervezas por favor, I learned on my own from travel.