In a message dated 01-09-26 11:09:28 EDT, Jay wrote:

<< Please try to lighten up.  The question of "vita" or "vitae"
 is not the end of the world.  That I was wrong is hardly
 something worth bashing me. >>

Let's see now, who first said "lighten up"?  Was it Emerson, Pliny, or Jenny
Craig?  It certainly didn't originate with Jay.  Socrates, probably.  No, the
question of "vita" or "vitae" isn't the "end of the world".  Gosh, where did
I say that?  And I didn't think I was "bashing" you, Jay, but if I did, it
was over the Emersonian rejoinder to Peter, not the Latin, which Peter and
Julia had addressed.  If you feel abashed, I apologize.  But since Peter has
graciously admitted that he was prompted more by your <smirk> than your
Latin, that takes the wind out of my sails (yet another cliche for your
collection).  On the other hand, bad Latin certainly was symptomatic of the
end of the Roman world, wasn't it? ;-)

Apparently I confused you, Jay, by inserting extra blather about the
declension of "vita" and meanings of "vitae"--I just wanted to be complete
while we're at it.  But I thought I did it matter-of-factly and
dispassionately.  After all, I'm on firm ground with a "dead" language like
Latin.  I don't have to get all exercised the way I do when people tell me
the English language suddenly changed over the weekend while I wasn't
looking.  E.g., a lawyer told me "copyrighted" is "no longer a word" because
you don't have to register copyrights any more: I mustered a passionate but
well-reasoned argument that knocked him out of his briefs and sent him
skulking silently away, thereby single-handedly saving the world from a
linguistic cataclysm.  Now THAT was important enough to get, well, heavy
about.  I don't have to lighten up about Latin.  It just is.

But I digress (as usual), and the grammar lecture in my previous post was a
digression.  My main point, which I thought I made clear, was to object to
ridiculing Peter with Emerson.  I don't think Peter's apology was necessary,
since he merely stated facts, and his admonition not to make wild guesses
about things that can be checked easily was, I thought, mild albeit firm.  I
thought a simple "thanks" from you was in order.  I appreciate Peter's
diplomacy, as well as your apology to him.

So now we can all have a Miller Lite (or something) and laugh about our
foibles.  I hope this case (double pun intended) is closed.  Cheerio, and my
apologies to all for extending this madness.  I now return to my regularly
scheduled program: the eleventh challenge to museums--making them safe for
elitists.

David Haberstich

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