Latin All Done

Well, another term of Latin 101 has come to an end. My students wrote their final on Saturday afternoon (blech!), and I didn't see anybody looking too dismayed at the end! This year they were writing in a gym, mixed in with about 400 Civil Engineering students. This meant, among other things, that it took me an hour to find one of them in the crowd. However, they were all there, and I have ended up with the right number of exams - hooray!

As usual, I shall miss my students - they were a good bunch this year!

Parliament Suspended

GG agrees to suspend Parliament until January
Decision gives Tories reprieve, thwarts imminent attempt to topple government

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean has granted a request from Stephen Harper to suspend Parliament until late next month, a move that avoids a confidence vote set for Monday that could have toppled his minority government.

Well. It's going to be an interesting month-and-a-bit! I was rather hoping, as I'm sure you've gathered, that we would be getting Prime Minister Dion any day now. However, if nothing else, this whole process has shown clearly that Conservative bullying does not need to be tolerated, and can be opposed. Whether the Conservatives got that message remains to be seen.

Hey Look! It's Ed!

Mr. Broadbent weighs in...

Harper 'lies' about coalition details: Broadbent
PM 'shameful' in portraying crisis as national unity issue, former NDP leader says

To save his own government, Stephen Harper is deliberately trying to deceive Canadians about the facts surrounding a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent said Wednesday.

In an interview with CBC News in Toronto, a furious Broadbent had harsh words for the prime minister, saying Harper was also trying to pit English Canada against Quebecers in his attempt to discredit the proposed coalition to replace him if the Conservative minority government falls.

Yup. I could go on at some length about the whole the-coalition-is-bad-for-national-unity line of attack, but instead I'll just send you over to Peace, Order, and Good Government, Eh? to read Purple Library Guy's post on the issue. Wow, this blogging thing sure is easy...

I would merely point out here the hypocrisy of shrieking about the Liberals being in bed with the Bloc when it turns out that Stockwell Day was contemplating doing exactly the same thing a few years ago (read right to the end of the article). Goose, gander, good, etc.

"I've never seen the leader of a Conservative party, certainly not Bob Stanfield, certainly not Joe Clark, lie — I choose the word deliberately — the way Mr. Harper has," Broadbent said.

Yup again. Today's Conservatives are not, by any stretch of the imagination, the Tories of yore. One could very often disagree with the policies of the old Progressive Conservative Party (and I usually did), but one never got the impression that it's members viewed Canada with the kind of angry contempt so prevalent in today's Conservatives.

It also occurs to me that I would really, really, like to hear Joe Clark's opinion of this whole situation...

The former NDP leader, who helped negotiate Monday's deal between the New Democrats and the Liberals with the support of the Bloc Québécois, said Harper also lied when he said the three opposition leaders refused to sign their agreement in front of a Canadian flag because Gilles Duceppe, a Quebec sovereigntist, objected.

The funniest about that bit of hysterical mendacity was that the opposition leaders signed the agreement in front of not one, but TWO Canadian flags, AND a portrait of the Fathers of Confederation. So, if one were silly enough to measure the patriotism of the coalition leaders by their physical proximity to symbols of the nation, then they're actually doing just fine. Although... they could have brought along a beaver... and invited Paul Henderson... and arrived at the meeting by canoe... and so on and so forth.

In other news... Rally Tomorrow!!

Viva La Revolución Del Jarabe De Arce!!

(with apologies to the entire Spanish-speaking world)

Gov. Gen. rushes home to deal with political turmoil
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 2, 2008 | 10:57 AM ET

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean is returning home early from a state visit to Europe to deal with the upheaval on Parliament Hill, where she could decide the fate of the government in the next week.

Come on, GG, do the right thing! Take government away from Harper and his smirking band of twits and give it back to the people who are willing to govern in a more adult manner. You know, the ones who don't see political power merely as a hammer with which to hit people who disagree with them...

Let's get one thing straight here: The move by the opposition parties to form a coalition government is neither illegal nor undemocratic. The three party leaders involved, and their MPs, were all elected to Parliament fair and square, and it is entirely within their right, as elected representatives of the Canadian people, to act as they are acting (in fact, one could argue that, under the circumstances, it's their sworn duty to rein in Harper). The Conservatives, while they did indeed win more seats than any other individual party, were not entrusted by the electorate with a majority. And yet, they have insisted on governing as though they had been. That arrogance is now being slapped down hard, and the country is better off for that.

So yes, let's have this coalition government and the object lesson that it represents. For one thing, it should mean that Omar Khadr gets to come home.¹

Important Note: A large tip of the fez to skadl at Peace, Order and Good Government, Eh?, who seems to have been the first to start labeling the current situation "The Maple Syrup Revolution." It's brilliant! Further Note: The sidebar coalition image is from here.

¹On the Khadr situation: I'm aware that the incoming Obama administration seems to have plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, and may be planning to send Khadr back to Canada anyway. The point here is that Stephen Harper, disgracefully, wasn't about to raise a finger to help the kid out.

Interesting Times...

Dion to lead Liberal-NDP coalition, Liberals confirm
PM: Dion 'playing biggest political game in Canadian history'

Liberal caucus members agreed unanimously on Monday that Stéphane Dion will stay on to lead a Liberal-NDP coalition, after the two parties reached a tentative agreement to replace the minority Conservative government.

Let us deal swiftly with the outright hilarity of Stephen Harper accusing somebody, anybody, of playing political games. The Libs and the Dippers aren't playing any games that the Cons didn't start. All they're doing is calling a massively silly bluff.

In fact, this whole situation works well in poker terms. For about a year, and perhaps even earlier, Harper has been betting aggressively, daring the opposition (this is a heads-up game, by the way) to call him. Most of the time, however, the opposition has folded meekly, and Harper has collected the blinds. So this time, when Harper peeked at his hole cards and discovered 7-3 of clubs, he looked forward to more of the same, and bet big. He doubtless even looked forward to showing his hand after the anticipated capitulation, and to mocking his opponent for being bullied out of the pot.

However, instead of folding, the opposition grinned at him and re-raised all-in.

This puts Mr. Harper in a bit of spot. He could fold, which would leave him in control, but would also mean admitting that the opposition has him sussed, and that the bully bet, his favourite and perhaps only tactic, isn't likely to work anymore. Or he could call, and hope like hell that he flops something that allows him to beat the opposition's pair of queens. It could happen, but it's not really likely.

Anyway, it looks now like there's a pretty good chance that Stephane Dion will get to be Prime Minister after all. And I wouldn't mind that a bit.

Missing Something?

A graffito from Pompeii:

equa esiquei aberavit cum semuncis honerata a d
VII Kal Septembres Decembres
convenito Q Deciu Q l Hilarum aut L Decium L
l Amphionem citra pontem
Sarni
fundo
Mamiano

Translated (loosely):

"If somebody lost a horse loaded with saddlebags on the 25th of November, get in touch with Quintus Decius Hilarus (freedman of Quintus) or Lucius Decius Amphio (freedman of Lucius) at the estate of Mamius on this side of the bridge over the Sarno."

Nice to see people doing the right thing!

At Dawn I Will Win!

Switching musical gears ever-so-slightly from the preceding post...

Quite recently I was chatting music with a friend of mine, and the topic came round to those pieces of operatic music which have become famous outside of the contexts of the actual operas for which they were written. The list of such pieces is fairly long. You've got "The Anvil Chorus," "La Donna E' Mobile," "Musetta's Waltz," "The Ride of the Valkyrie," (I am sure that there's a large segment of the population that, upon hearing "The Ride of the Valkyrie," subconsciously supplies either: a) the sound of Vietnam-era helicopters, or b) Elmer Fudd singing "kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit!"), "The Toreador Song," "The Queen of the Night's Aria," and many many others (Edit!:...such as "The William Tell Overture!" Thanks Llama!) .



There is, however, one piece that is the arch-overlord of all of the sort of "operatic popular songs." Here 'tis (watch, just as the three of them have finished singing, for the glance that Pavarotti shoots at his two colleagues. It is a glance that quite eloquently says "boys, we just nailed that..."):

I would have posted this earlier, but I had to watch the video to make sure it was working properly. About 47 times.

Sic Transit Something Or Other

Right. Well, you can probably file this under "things I never thought I would see":



Here's what our esteemed Country Life Butter spokesman was up to about 30 years ago:

A Rabbit Tale

One day, near my office...

"ZzzzZZzzzz*snork* "Huh, wha...?"

"Hey, who're you?"

"Ok, don't come any closer, Bub!"

"That's it, I'm outta here... Hey look! Grass!"

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

BONUS!!: Olde-timey rabbit appears... in sepia!!!

"You called?"

Ok, not much of tale... But it's a tale nonetheless!

Oh, I've Seen This Before!

more animals

Shades of the departed Claudia cat, who used to enjoy very much lying on the hot-air vents!

You, Sir, Are My Hero!

You are also nuts.

The following is the in-car video from a rally-race in France. The goodness starts at about the 1:00 mark, when the car's throttle cable snaps. Race over, one would think. However, the driver quickly figures out that the throttle itself is still functioning, and merely cannot be controlled from the driver's compartment. What follows is truly epic...

Odd...

So I trotted up to my mailbox this afternoon, and discovered therein a mysterious envelope from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. "That's strange," I thought. "I don't think I know anybody in Newcastle." Turns out that the letter was a completely unsolicited offer to publish my PhD thesis, from an outfit that knows the working title but seems unaware that the thesis has not been, you know, written yet.

My first cynical thought was "hello, vanity press!" However, I've checked out the company's website, and they do seem to be into publishing scholarly works (a three-volume edition of the works of Statius, for example). I shall have to e-mail them and find out what's up!

I shall also check around this corner of the Classical 'hood and see what the 411 is on them, yo. More bulletins as events warrant.

This Looks Interesting!

Google Earth revives ancient Rome

Google has added a new twist to its popular 3D map tool, Google Earth, offering millions of users the chance to visit a virtual ancient Rome.

I think I need to get a computer and put Google Earth on it! Then I can indulge in writing peevish blog posts saying things like: "Well, they obviously got the Temple of Mars Ultor all wrong..."

Kidding. I've seen a few virtual reality reconstructions of ancient sites, and they tend to be really really cool. It's likely that this one will be too!

The Temple of Mars Ultor, as it is today

A Milestone And Some Other Stuff!

Dydd-Llun, Dydd-Mawrth, Dydd-Mercher, Dydd-Iau, Dydd-Gwener, Dydd-Sadwrn, Dydd-Sul.

And what are those? Well, if you guessed "the days of the week in Welsh," then good for you! That makes Welsh, I believe, the only living language which has retained the old pagan Roman system of naming the days of the week in its entirety! In Latin, they were:

Dies Lunae, Dies Martis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Iovis, Dies Veneris, Dies Saturni, Dies Solis.

It's worth noting that Cornish and Breton also maintained the pagan Roman system, while the other Celtic languages (Irish, Manx, and Scots Gaelic) had adopted some of the Christian tradition. Cornish and Breton are, of course, no longer living languages.

All this, by the way, is courtesy of one of my students. I gave them my "Roman Calendar" spiel yesterday, and today discovered that she'd sent me a long and interesting e-mail about the Celtic languages and their days of the week. I do like it when they get into what I'm talking about!

In other news, this is the 100th post on this blog! So, to celebrate, have some 100th-post-suitable music:

Better. Than. Nirvana.

During the recent riot-grrrrl musical interluding, I left somebody out. Oversight corrected (Actually it wasn't really an oversight. I just wanted to post those two particular videos)!

Warning: NSFW language!



And here they are again, in a quieter sort of mood, mostly.

On The Recent U.S. Election

Well, that was a fine, fine evening. In particular, here's to the voters in Indiana, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and probably North Carolina (CNN isn't saying for sure, yet), who removed their states from Republican hands, at least as far as the presidential vote was concerned. My favourite line of the night was trotted out by one of the CNN analysts (can't remember who it was, exactly). I'm paraphrasing here, but as he looked at the crowd in Chicago awaiting Obama's victory speech, he said: "It is difficult to imagine at this time how this country ever elected George W. Bush." Indeed, sir, indeed...

Update: The Onion weighs in!