Great opening lines...

Among the more entertaining first lines of an essay:

The Spanish Cardinal Merry de Val once said that for the Protestant the Bible is a wax nose to be twisted any way one pleases.

Quoted from this essay, the interest of which I cannot vouch since I am one line into it (warning: I think you need to have JSTOR access).

St. Germaine

Ah, you gotta love the phrasology of old writers:

The student starts off by saying that no such thing is in the law of England, but is rather a “general maxim” to guard against the probable possibility “that every man by a nude parole and by a bare averment should avoid an obligation.” I.e., somebody’s word or mere statement of fact is not sufficient to absolve them from an obligation—something of more “authority” is needed.

Okay, that wasn't actually an ancient writer (it was actually RW on St. German), but I tell you it must have been hard to be released on "nude parole." One can only imagine what a strange legal system it was when you could get out of jail so long as someone came to court in the buff to plead for you (bare averment) and you promised not to wear any clothes while outside the walls of the slammer. Let's just hope you didn't get paroled in the cold midwinter, King Wenceslas.

Heard Word

I may have been mistaken, but I thought I heard RW use the word, "jurisprude," in class today. Given that he wasn't referring to someone who "makes an ostentatious show of learning in jurisprudence," he may have been, in fact, acting like a jurisprude simply by using the term. I'm going to call him out on it tomorrow. I'll let you know if fisticuffs result.

Lawyers.com has the whole story on this word...

Definition - Noun
[back-formation (influenced by prude) from jurisprudence]
: an individual who makes ostentatious show of learning in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law or who regards legal doctrine with undue solemnity or veneration might long and profoundly debate the question of which was the greater right and which was the lesser ­Howell v. State, 425 A.2d 1361 (1981)>
Pronunciation'ju'r-&s-"prüd

El Profesor

Fun phrases emanating from the professor in class today.

Saint Vitus Dance:

A comedian at Rome, martyred under Diocletian in 286 or 303. Feast, 25 August. He is invoked against epilepsy, and is honoured as patron of theatrical performers and of musicians. The legend (Acta SS., Aug., V, 119) relates: Genesius, the leader of a theatrical troupe in Rome, performing one day before the Emperor Diocletian, and wishing to expose Christian rites to the ridicule of his audience, pretended to receive the Sacrament of Baptism. When the water had been poured upon him he proclaimed himself a Christian. Diocletian at first enjoyed the realistic play, but, finding Genesius to be in earnest, ordered him to be tortured and then beheaded. He was buried on the Via Tiburtina. His relics are said to be partly in San Giovanni della Pigna, partly in S. Susanna di Termini and in the chapel of St. Lawrence. The legend was dramatized in the fifteenth century; embodied in later years in the oratorio "Polus Atella" of Löwe (d. 1869), and still more recently in a work by Weingartner (Berlinn 1892).

The relevance to our class? None. There is another definition of the term, one more applicable to what the professor what trying to convey, namely the awkward and often violent dance that both the legislative and the executive branch partake in. As always, the Wikigod provides:

Chorea sancti viti (Latin for "St. Vitus' dance") is an abnormal involuntary movement disorder, one of a group of neurological disorders called dyskinesias. The term chorea is derived from a Greek word khoreia (a kind of dance, see chorea), as the quick movements of the feet or hands are vaguely comparable to dancing or piano playing.

So, apparently, the two branches of government don't get along too well. Of course, if this is normal, I would hate to see what things would like if they were butting heads.

"Vaunting ambition": It's a great phrase and one that doesn't need a lot of explanation. Obviously, someone with a lot of ambition, someone driven, someone aiming to climb the ladders of power would be described by this pair of words. But "vaunting"? Not the most common adjective. Here's a little background:

1.	having a boastfully proud disposition: a vaunting dictator.

2.	marked by boastful pride: a vaunting air of superiority.

Ah, gee, thanks Dictionary.com. You're real swell!

The Hora: Okay, this actually came from R.S. (he hasn't given me permission to publish his name yet...well, I never asked, but you get the idea), but it merits a mention. While El P waxed eloquent about the "admixture of the legislative and the executive" it was up to Richard (oops, that cat is out of the bag) to remind Prof. U that sometimes the two avoid each other like the plauge, dancing in concentric and untouching circles.

But wait, everyone knows the Hora is just a wonderful dance of the Jewish people...why is this news? Ah, because it is not originally Jewish, grasshopper.

Hora is a Romanian (hora-singular; hore-plural), traditional circle folk dance which gathers all people present in a big closed circle. The dancers hold each other by hands and the circle turns on itself usually clockwise as each participant follows a sequence of taking three steps forward and one step back. The dance is usually accompanied by musical instruments such as the cymbalum, the accordion, the violin, the viola, the double bass, the saxophone, the trumpet or even the panflute.

Hora is popular during wedding celebrations, popular festivals, and it's an essential part of the social entertainment in rural areas. One of the most famous horas is the Hora Unirii, (Hora of the Union) which became a romanian patriotic song after being the hymn in 1859, when Wallachia and Moldavia united to form the Principality of Romania. During the 2007 New Year's Eve celebration, when Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union, people were dancing Hora Bucuriei (Hora of Joy) over the boulevards of Bucharest, as a tribute to The Ode to Joy European anthem. The hora was also danced by the Vlachs (Romanians) of Bulgaria, hence it has been introduced into the folklore of Bulgaria under the name of horo (singular), hora (plural). Some of the biggest hora circles can be found on early XXth century movies, taken by Manakia brothers in Pindus, and performed by local aromanian people.

So, you see, there are many things left to learn. Romanian dances among them.

British Insults

No idea where I came across this one, but if you ever want to make someone feel low (without using any four letter words), employ this word in your insult.

Mudfarmers

Bloggodoggerel

As you may be able to tell, the new Blogger has attacked the DT. Well, I can't really complain since I initiated this whole thing, but somewhere, I got suckered into "upgrading" the blog layout. As you may or may not notice, many things have appeared (cool), while many other things have changed ever so slightly, like font sizes and spacing (not cool at all).

My apologies if anyone goes cross-eyed...though if that happens, I'd blame your eyes before this humble dog of a blog. Regardless, I'll try to make sure it's spiffy, but Blogger (even the new Blogger) is hip like your grandmother (as in, she needs a new one). If I weren't such a Luddite, maybe I'd explore TypePad or MovableType or whatnot (see, I'm subtly threatening Blogger...no doubt they'll quiver in their boots and hastily remedy the slight formatting issues that plague me, lest they lose such a high profile blogger to another service).

P.S. Luddite is my new favorite word. Look for gross abuses of it in the future.
P.P.S. Gross is also on that favorite list. Look for a gross of grosses in the very near future.
P.P.S. A gross, in the world of numbers, means 144 (common knowledge, no doubt). But did you realize that a Great gross = a dozen grosses (that is, 1728)? Ha! Gotcha.