Before we go any further, I'd like to clear up the "joke" I made in the upper right-hand corner of this page recently. the quote ran, "in nomine patria et filia et spiritu sancti". This may have related in some fashion to the Boondock Saints. In fact, it probably did. The other relatively humorous thing about this quote is that it does not mean "in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit" but due to some subtle errors it actually said "in the name of the fatherland and of the daughter and the holy spirit". The take home lesson here, kids, is that after Latin I am in desperate need of some "re-education" on the subject of what constitutes a joke.

movies I have seen recently:
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (funny)
Blazing Saddles (still funny)
She's All That (not really funny)
L.A. Confidential (still awesome - Titanic sucks!)
Wet Hot American Summer (not as funny as I remember; still funny)

Latin is almost over. Thank God. Thank. God. I love the Latin Workshop in the same way I love(d) the U of C: I can't/couldn't wait to be gone but I'm sure that somewhere down the road I'll be grateful. Also, having survived is my own little Red Badge of Courage. Although perhaps Purple Heart would be a better medal-related metaphor. Anyway, I can now say that I have read (bits of) Ovid, Cicero, Caesar, Virgil, Erasmus, Martial, Einhard, Pliny, Livy and Seneca in the original. Pretty awesome. Or something. A couple of notes on Latin authors:

Cicero: I now know why Mark Anthony demanded that your head and hands be cut off and nailed to the Rostrum. If only you would have gotten to the damn point a little sooner none of this would have happened.

Caesar: Although everyone knows that Caesar (that's Julius) more or less got to have his way with everyone who opposed him on the battlefield, not everyone knows that he was an incredibly accomplished author and grammarian.

Livy: Some other author once described Livy's writing with the phrase "lactea ubertas" which means something like "milky richness". Try to use this phrase as much as possible, when appropriate. Also, I learned from Livy that the Latin word for she-wolf also can mean prostitute.

Current totals, running Gin Rummy competition:
DirTina: 286
Germanicus: 345

There may not be any significant updates here for a couple of days. Minnesotam iturus sum quia domum bonus Katinae amicam ducet quinque post dies, which is to say that I am about to go to Minnesota because a good man will marry Katina's friend on Saturday.