Gaius Octavius

O!, ye gods! Now I have to deal with another one! I'll get you both. I am going to spend a good part of this day working at it.

Please tell me it wasn't the canned type... Nah. Domina Claudia fixed up a slab of the real thing to help keep the hog slopped in her absence.

Beshrew me! I hate you! Truely HATE you! Are you going to have me spend the rest of my miserable, wretched, long suffering, worthless life with my head stuck in a dictionary? Love, Gaius yes. Just you wait! Just you wait, with baited breath, of course.

Dipwad? When I find out what that means, I will add it to my lexicon of aspersions.

Beshrew me! I hate you! Truely HATE you! Are you going to have me spend the rest of my miserable, wretched, long suffering, worthless life with my head stuck in a dictionary? Love, Gaius

It is claimed that Caesar had an 'affair' with a sister of Cato. Maybe this is why the ancient and present incarnation of Cato had and have so vehement an attitude towards Caesar.

I didn't know that I was supposed to 'PUBLISH' my blog! So it's in a fouled up order. Maybe you can make something of it. Cretan!, Idiot!, that I am! And possibly find it in your hearts to forgive me - some day. My sainted mother used to tell me: "You'll learn - some day."

Fellow Travelers: If it weren't for Pentagathus, this blog would be locked and deader than a dumb bell. For the which, I humbly thank him publically. I hope he doesn't come to regret it. The gods bless those who speak Latin and know computerese. :angel: Pertinax chipped in also :notworthy: If any are as ignorant as I am of this stuff, as old as I am, and want to open a blog, pay no attention to the instructions. Do the opposite of what you think you are being asked to do. :bag: ENGLISH! ENGLISH! BROKEN NEAPOLITAN IF NECESSARY! Courage Komrades, courage, Gaius the Dumb

My Dear Romans: My wine and beer are only a pleasant memory. Now my lasagne and coffee have joined the afore mentioned! The whiskey won't last out the day! The Empire is ancient history! The Yankees lost - again! Pertinax and Pentagathus are driving me . I had to have a corned beef sandwich for breakfast! The corned beef will have to last until lunch Monday! I have to go to two (2!) weddings! One is a serial polygynist. The other is a novice at it. Told them to do the jobs on some mountain top in Italy where the goats roam. No luck! Tried to get the parents to forego the caterers and give the good golden guilders to the soon to be blissful newly weds rather than to the divestment bankers (caterers). Again, my bad luck held up. Dropped a pill this AM and it disappeared into a black hole! Lipitor is gone, ergo cheese is off the menu. Can't remember the difference between the words 'anyone' and 'anybody'. Been trying to for years. There is a difference, don't you know? Obviously the folic acid is of no help. What's left? Lithium, Avodart and *iagr*! Going to take my mid morning nap and cogitate on harry-carry. Probably will befoul any effort to that end. Iupiter, why? Gaius

Comrade Sojourners: In re Medicare Part 'D'. The drug companies got 4 billion smackeroos; the insurance companies 1 1/2; and old folks got the shaft. It seems that one may only get a 30 day supply of a drug that one will take for the rest of his life. That CENSORED Speaking of that OH! MY GOD! I hope that he gets a ride in a Hum-Vee while in Baghdad. Even better if he takes the rest of his mob with him and they all wear those worthless helmets. A couple of baseball commentators on Fox got poisoned eating mussels in Detroit. Don't eat the mussels in Detroit. Better still, skip Detroit. Nonetheless, I commend mussels in Detroit to the rest of the Fox trash talkers. And Ann Coulter, that sallow bag of bones and bad manners, had the crust to send me (of all people) an e-mail hawking her garbage! A poster on this site had the smarts to say "I was graduated...." rather than the solecistic "I graduated...." The latest Somali gangsters, who are running the rackets there now, have banned the World Cup. Hacking heads off still on the menu?!. A coyote has been caught in Central Park (NYC). Weredogs (Oh, Yes!) have been seen in Prospect Park (Brooklyn). The outlying provinces have nothing on us when it comes to monsters! It will take all the old gods to help us, Basil Fawlty

Good Morning World: In NYC, there is a whacko, wrong wing, illiterate, radio trash talker and rectal ranger extraordinaire named curtis sliwa. He wears a silly red beret. Mangles English and whatever Italic language he thinks that he is speaking. Unfortunately, he was almost 'put down' by some mobsters. This clod hoped that the U.S. would lose yesterday! Because soccer is an un- American sport! Claudio is an un-American name! Never trust a person with two last names. To his credit, he has a number of graduate degrees earned at the Schola Skellorum. :punk: The other day, the Department of Environmental Protection shut my building's water off without so much as a how-do-you-do. What about my 'environment', you CENSORED Had to wash my face with rubbing alchohol, (Good for the eyes.), preparatory to the co-op's annual meeting. Things went well until some jerko (Should that be 'jerker'?), decided to use my kind of language. Had to go at him with :2guns: An obscure item in the news indicated that some good folks, who advocate the religion of peace, have sawed off the heads of a couple more defenseless chaps and administered a little more mayhem. I wonder why these good people want so much to go to the countries of the peoples they hate so much.? :wub: War is good!

That stuff Pantagathus commended to us and DoL seconded is good. In my case, less vinegar. Watch out for the 'mofo' garlic - you might get trashed.

Ancient humans? Aliens? Twaddle! I have seen Viggens flic and I can tell you for a certainty that it was Neanderthals. So, there!

Not that it mattered, but we wuz robbed! Wasn't that a free ball? What was that penalty all about? There is only one honest sport around; pro rasslin! Good thing that the Yankees don't play in England!

Beats me. Seems that the boss is in the same place on both.

Ah, Prof. Dalby, I can't tell you of the feeling of elation that I have at not being the subject of derision, both here and abroad, on this account at least. The glass of jug wine that I am into helps.

Noted. Yet, I have a problem. The horizontal grip 'seems' to limit the angular travel of the shield when the wrist is twisted to the right. This wouldn't happen with the vertical hold. I am really asking a question here. I am positive that I am missing something. I guess that there must be advantages and disadvantages for each grip.

There's nothing idiotic about testing IQ. IQ tests allow one to diagnose developmental disorders and mental retardation, make predictions about who needs additional instruction in the schools, and evaluate other testing instruments for their discriminative power. If IQ tests did not exist, it would be necessary to invent them. Gould's radical egalitarianism has done more harm to scientific progress than any benefits it provided in fighting racism. As this whole thread make clear, even in the absence of IQ tests, racism would remain and would find new rationalizations to invent. Basically, I agree with you. BUT: I.Q. tests evaluate 'learned' rather than 'inate' ability. Additionally, minority cultural traits are not accounted for. This score stays with a person, often to his detriment.

Pertinax, he seems to be holding the shield with a horizontal rather than a vertical bar. Assistance, please. :notworthy:

Compare the Latin words for Hello and goodbye. When greeting people in Latin you said ave or have (apparently borrowed from Punic) or chaere (borrowed from Greek); but when saying goodbye you said vale, a native Latin word meaning

Couldn't agree more. It was about that time if I recall correctly that the USA was frightened that waves of ignorant immigrants were destined to outbreed the 'native' Anglo-Saxons, thus reducing IQ and causing collapse of the nation. Gould's Mismeasure of Man was good on denouncing this sort of stuff (as well as the idiocy of IQ testing). The 'theory' did have some credit. The immigrants raised the I.Q. of the population. Then, there is pizza, the long current national food.

Your quack informant suggests righteous fact. About the Chianti Classico Black Rooster By the by, I'm not a very good wine snob... I simply know what I like without being able to truly express what it is that I like. One of my criteria is... Does my wife like it? Yes, then even if I don't it's still a decent choice. No she doesn't like it... Well generally I'll skip it, though I can't give up Shiraz simply because she has a softer pallet I generally give him a couple of bottles of stuff that I haven't tasted. If he likes it, I won't. If Domina Claudia likes it; I won't and vice versa. As a wine S. Nob., most of the stuff tastes like my idea of weasel pee. That is the Joy of Neapolitan Cooking. Do it 'Your Way'.

One of my many quacks has informed me that 'any' Chianti with a black rooster (cock) pictured on the cork seal is potable. Is this merely 'suggestion' or fact?

I think that Augustus had Virgil compound that 'legend'. In that 'legend', the Romans were originally horsemen from the Caucasus who migrated to Illium. Just as in the Bible, there are two 'creation' stories. Pick the one that suits you best.

Assuming that my eyes are of some assistance and that Pertinax' excellent pictures depict the shield as it was, there is no strap either at the forearm or the wrist. If there were a strap at the forearm, the angle of travel of the shield would be greatly limited. The right side of the body could not be protected. The left side would also be limited. A testudo could not be formed. It would be difficult to protect ones head from flying missiles or sword strokes. Holding the shield by the hand alone allows one to increase the angles of protection. A strap at the wrist would not spread the weight of the shield to any extent. The question of why the gladius was on the right side is also answered. Drawing it from either side requires the same amount of radial travel for the attachment of the scabbard to the belt. It is as easy to draw from the right as the left side with the right arm. The resulting hand grip is the same. One is prepared to jab. The shield does not have to be moved forward to prevent slashing ones left arm when drawing.