lollardfish

"How in the end, Once the city was captured, Alexius, put in the place of Alexius, was put to flight and blinded by Alexius, the paternal uncle of Alexius."

Or

Qualiterque ultimo, civitate capta, Alexius Alexio suppositus fugatus fuerit, et ab Alexio Alexii patruo exoculatus.

---

How many Alexiuses are there do you think?

It's Spring!

For the record, that's David Ortiz and Coco Crisp (yes, that's what they call him. No, it's not his given name). Get it?

Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
Avdenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias
Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.
Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum,
Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
Nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.

Through many lands and many seas,
I have come, my brother, to this sad grave,
In order to render you Death's final duties,
And strive to converse with your ashes, though dumb.
Fortune has taken you, so undeservedly,
Alas my poor brother, stolen from me.
For now, as I furnish a dead man's last rite,
The funeral libation our fathers knew well,
Accept these fraternal tears at your gravesite.
My brother, Hail and Farewell.

(I lightly edited the translation from: Here. Too emotional to do it myself just now.)

309 For this was on seynt Valentynes day,
310 Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,
311 Of every kinde, that men thenke may;
312 And that so huge a noyse gan they make,
313 That erthe and see, and tree, and every lake
314 So ful was, that unnethe was ther space
315 For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.

Cat needs home

Please continue to ask around.

This is my first time using Craig's list. I like it. There are multiple steps to ensure anonymity but also so that bots would have a hard time using it.

If Hobo Cat comes by today, I am putting him in a crate and taking him to a vet. And then one of y'all had better find a home for him, damnitall! (I have high hopes for Skylarker's friend).

I am considering naming him Hector. Unless, he's a girl or something.

Fight Club is a romantic comedy. Just watch the trailer. Requires quicktime.

In seventh and eighth grade, my English teacher was Mrs. Venable. She had a list of mistakes called the "Death List," and if you made any of them in your assignment you got, at best, a 59 (an F). In honor of me using effect instead of affect in a syllabus draft, I have decided to re-institute the Death List for all non-formal writing assignments for my students (things graded pass/fail. If they make the mistake, it's fail).

All of them are things that spellcheckers do not catch, and that I see CONSTANTLY in student writing. They must be things that remain valid in modern usage (i.e. First person singular and plural /future/ should be "shall" instead of "will." But that ship has sailed. Similarly, quote is a verb and quotation is a noun, but, quote is now also a noun, damnit!)

I am looking for death list submissions. Here are mine so far (will be updated as I develop them).

On the list:

Your/You're
Their/There/They're
It's/Its
Affect/Effect
Principle/Principal
Ensure/Insure
Who's/Whose
Wear/Where
Led/Lead
Lose/Loose
To/Too

The girl just brought me a salad with tangy dressing and duck bacon bits. I am a lucky medievalist. That's all.

When I go interview at Willamette, I need to teach a 1 hour class. I'm going to do it on the Black Death, but first I want to play a game with the students. I call it, "If you were alive back then, would you be dead!" Better title suggestions gladly accepted.

I ask all the students to stand up, then I ask them questions about their lives, and tell them if they are dead or alive had they lived in the Middle Ages and make them sit down. This time it'll be for 1300, when actually nascent medical developments had improved certain things, like midwifery, to some extent. I try to end up with a few women and a few men left at the end, so I can kill some of the women in childbirth and some of the men in battle, and then tell the remaining ones that they could live to be 90!

It's unscientific. It's not based in hard medieval population data. It's an icebreaker. I need more questions though, and so I turn to you.

I ask:

1 - Who had a very serious childhood illness, so serious you've been told about it by your folks? Mumps, measles, bad chickenpox, etc. I kill about 25% off, but not too many. A nice chunk of people though.
2 - Who has broken a leg or an arm? I kill a few off from infection.
3 - Who has had appendicitis? I kill myself off (age 12! Oh, the humanity!)
4 - Who's been in a serious accident (car, bike, whatever)?
5 - Who has had a bad case of the flu lately?

I'd like a few more questions. Any advice?