X-Treme Latin: All The Latin You Need To Know For Surviving The 21st Century (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
This is a little better than the typical book of translated insults. [It is unsettling to realize that I've collected four or five of these over the years.] It should be a useful resource: you can, for example, learn the Latin for "Ask my opponent why he wants to put a tax on Bibles and American flags to buy gourmet meals for convicted murderers." (p. 91)Or, if attack ads aren't part of your daily life, you might be able to use the chapter on Useful Phrases for Barbarian Evildoers. "Please do not fire your catapult! We love your big chariots, fast food, and violent culture! We welcome you as liberators, not conquerors. We'd much rather be ruled by a distant emperor, even if he's a nitwit!" (pp. 64-66)I note, however, that in the Preface (p. xv), "Et futue te ipsum" is mistranslated as "And have a nice day."
Beard's Latin primer is billed as "all the Latin you need to know for surviving in the 21st Century" and is full of gems such as Scedae Monitoriae (Warning Labels); Fieri potest ut caput tuum displodatur (Your head may explode); Oppetite mortem lumine amplificato stimulata emissione radiorum cimices extraterrestriales foedi (Eat laser death, alien insect scum), and (my favourite) age catamite fac mihi hunc diem felicissimum, (Go ahead punk, make my day). At the risk of being hoisted by my own petard (Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus!) it's probably best not to use this indiscriminately. After all, it should be easy to see that Futue te ipsum does not mean 'have a nice day'.
What do You think about X-Treme Latin: All The Latin You Need To Know For Surviving The 21st Century (2005)?
If this was a Latin text book, then Latin would be the most popular language in school. It has several useful chapters - the use of the word F-word for those possessed with any variety of road rage is perhaps the best one, offering insults far beyond any combination of fuck- possible in English. This book would make a great gift for a lawyer who has to use a certain amount of Latin anyway, and if the book falls open at the F-word cursing chapter when you give it as a gift, well then, so much the better.
—Petra X
