Conference thebay::joyoflex

    Meaning, one assumes, that it collects the chaff neatly rather than
    letting it collect in a little pile on the floor.  What's your problem?
    

    A sign on one of our demos at UNIX-Expo talked about "Contest-sensitive
    Help" :^(

    Speaking of punctiliousness, I sent the following mail message to the
    Boston Globe's Ask the Globe column this morning:
    
    -------- cut here --------
    
    X-POP3-Rcpt: [email protected]
    Mime-Version: 1.0
    Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 08:15:45 -0400
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected] (Richard Binder)
    Subject: Error in Ask the Globe
    
    I've found a PERFECT solecism in Ask the Globe for Wednesday, September 20.
    I reproduce it below, with my commentary in brackets, in hopes that you
    will choose to correct the mistake in print:
    
        Q. When printed material gives quotes that include mistakes in spelling
        or grammar, "sic" is often written after the quote to show that the
        mistake was made by the author of the quote, not the writer of the rest
        of the text.  What is the origin of the word "sic"?  P.M., Hudson
    
        A.  Sic, which means that mistakes in a quote were intentionally
        included, comes from the Latin word "soc," [sic] meaning so.
    
    Richard Binder
    31 Fairmount Street
    Nashua, NH  03060-2523
    Bus. phone (603) 881-2775
    Home phone (603) 882-5384
    
    +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | Quaeuis hic quisquiliae notiones meae sunt; ne dominum meum uitupera. |
    | N.a Tel. Domi 603-882-5384, Officina 603-881-2775, Facs. 603-880-6483 |
    +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

    And I got a call from the Ask the Globe person, who insists that "soc"
    is the etymology given in her copy of Webster's Third New International
    Dictionary.  I explained, as a Latin scholar, that it simply must be a
    typo because there is in Latin no such word, but she wasn't buying it.
    
    Ah, well.

    
    She is doubtless recalling the famous Latin spoonerism, "In Soc Higno
    Vinces." 
    
    Back in the '60s, Jean Shepherd had a funny radio talk show which
    I think originated the now-famous "semper ubi sub ubi" (literal
    translation: always where under where) and also the slogan "In Hoc
    Agricola Canc" (literal translation: in this farmer <canc>).
    
    After this slogan had been scrawled on blackboards a few dozen times,
    we could not convince the masses that canc was not a word in Latin and
    that the slogan was nonsensical.
    
    JP

    Re .6: John, although I managed to understand the (easy) pun in "semper
    ubi sub ubi", I didn't get that in "in hoc agricola canc". Do you care
    to explain it to a witless foreigner?
    
    	BTW, we also used to play with that sort of puns in high-school
    Latin class, the easiest one being "stultis ego castra", meaning in
    French literal translation "fou moi le camp" i.e. "fous-moi le camp",
    slang for "get off".
    			Denis.

    
    Denis,
    
    Once again, "in hoc agricola canc" is a nonsense phrase. The first
    three words mean "in this farmer" and the last word doesn't mean
    anything. There is less to this than meets the eye...
    
    JP

    Re .8: Thanks John, I must have skipped over the bit about it being
    nonsensical in .6, but while we're at it, it seems to me that this
    topic is a suitable place to ask another question in the same vein:
    what is the meaning of and/or the pun under the citation: "nihil
    illegitimus carborundum" that I have often seen without understanding
    it?
    		Denis.

    Denis, that phrase is more usually rendered as "Illegitimi non
    carborundum," at least in the United States.  It is taken to mean
    "Don't let the bastards grind you down," with the obvious play in the
    meaning of the word "bastard."  The nonsense of it is that the word
    "Carborundum" is actually a trademark invented by an abrasives company
    for its product made of silicon carbide crystals.  Carbon and corundum
    are the raw materials, whence "Carborundum."

As I recall, "Illegitimi non carborundum" are the words which begin an 
alternate set of lyrics to one of Harvard's old fight songs, "10,000 Men of 
Harvard". The whole thing was nonsense latinoid. It went something like 
the following. My fellow Crimsons can watch my back, lest any damn Eli 
(Yalie that is) give me any grief. I'm sure you'll excuse the miniscules. 
After all, it is nonsense.

Illegitimi non carborundum
  Domine salvum fac
Illegitimi non carborundum
  Domine salvum fac
Gaudeamus Igitur
  Veritas, Non Sequitur
Illegitimi non carborundum
  Ipso Facto

Ten thousand men of Harvard
  Want victory today.
For they know that o'er old Eli,
  Fair Harvard holds sway.
Sweep down the fields again,
  And when the game ends, we'll sing again.
Ten thousand men of Harvard
  Have victory today.

Rah! Get out the faux raccoon coats!

Fight fiercely, Harvard! Fight, fight, Fight!

Wook '83

    Re .10: Thanks for the explanation, Dick. In French too, the word
    carborundum is a synonym for silicon carbide, the second hardest
    material after diamond, but I'm not aware that it is a trademark in
    France. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the word has been
    borrowed in French from the American trademark, though.
    			Denis.

    If carborundum is only second hardest then it is not the root of
    most of the bastards?
    
    
    (I can't believe I'm posting this :-)

Illegitimi non adamantium