8.4.13

If it's all Greek to you, you'd best move along. But if it's Latin, well, you've come to the right place. If you want to appear to be a smarty pants writer and drop an occasional Latin phrase, take you pick.


annus mirabilis - wonderful year
arbiter elegantiae - judge of the elegant; one who knows the good things in life
bona fides - good faith; credentials
carpe diem - sieze the day; enjoy the present
casus belli - cause justifying a war
caveat emptor - buyer beware
cui bono? - for whose advantage?
de facto - of fact; it is
de gustibus non est disputandum - no disputing tastes; there is no accounting for taste
Dei gratia - by the grace of God
Deo gratias - thanks to God
Deo volente - God willing
dis aliter visum - it seemed otherwise to the gods
Dominus vobiscum - Lord be with you
dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - sweet and seemly it is to die for one’s country
ecce homo - behold man
ex cathedra - with authority
ex more - with or according to customs
exempli gratia - for example (e.g.)
genius loci - spirit of the location
hic et ubique - here and everywhere
hinc illae lacrimae - hence, those tears
humanum est errare - to err is human; human is to err
id est - that is (i.e.)
in extremis - at death
in hoc signo vinces - by this sign, you conquer
in loco parentis - in place of the parent
in medias res - into the middle of things; the heart of the matter
in omnia paratus - prepared for all; ready for anything
in perpetuum - forever; perpetually
in propia persona - in person; in one’s own life or words
in statu quo - as things were
in toto - entirely; in total
ipso jure - the law itself
jure divino - Divine law
labor omnia vincit - labor conquers all things; effort results in victory
laborare est orare - to work is to pray
laus Deo - praise God
loco citato - in the location cited
loquitur - he speaks
mens sana in corpore sano - of sound mind in a healthy body
meum et tuum - mine and yours
modus operandi - mode of operating
morituri te salutamus - we who are about to die, salute you
motu proprio - of one’s own accord; on your own
multum in parvo - there is much in little
nemo me impune lacessit - no one attacks me with impunity
nil admirari - wondering at nothing
nolens volens - willing or not
Nota Bene - note well; pay special attention to
omnia vincit amor - love conquers all
opere citato - in the volume cited; in the book cited
otium cum dignitate - leisure with dignity
passim - here and there
pater patriae - father of his country
pax vobiscum - peace be with you
persona non grata - unwelcome person
primus inter pares - first among equals
pro bono publico - for the public good
pro Deo et ecclesia - for God and the Church
pro forma - as a matter of form; standard
quod erat demonstrandum - which was demonstrated; that which was shown
requiescat in pace - rest in peace
sic - thus; so it was
sic passim - so throughout
sic semper tyrannis - thus always to tyrants
sine die - some day; not a particular time
sine quo non - without which, nothing; it is essential
tempus fugit - time flies
timeo Danaos et dona ferentes - I fear the Greeks, even when they bear gifts
verbatim et literatim - word for word, letter for letter

1.4.13

Just a little und dis mit a little und dat!

Go home Wolverine, you are not Gaston!

It's a puppet!



Best toy ever--and still spinning!

Early and beautiful Muccha




I don't remember this scene from the movie, but who cares?

You can't have a good time without a good watch.


Worst menu ever!

Name the fantastic horror movie!








Like a boss.



Why they out of ice?














I hate waking up this way. I'm allergic to cats and I don't know where my pants are.

Try warming your hands next time, Pepper.


The advance advertising team for Pacific Rim seems to be doing their job with this poster series.










22.3.13

Writing is the opposite of reading, only harder. Your average bump on a log can read a book, but a log never has.



"I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark." Henry David Thoreau 
"Writing is an adventure." Winston Churchill 
"Know something, sugar? Stories only happen to people who can tell them." Allan Gurganus 

 "... only he is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things." Anton Chekhov 

"A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightening." James Dicke
 "It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous."Robert Benchley 
"You ask for the distinction between the terms "Editor" and "Publisher": an editor selects manuscripts; a publisher selects editors." M. Lincoln Schuster 
"A writer lives, at least, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all. To transmit that feeling, he writes." William Sansom 
"I don't like to write, but I love to have written." Michael Kanin
"However great a man's natural talent may be, the art of writing cannot be learned all at once." Jean Jacques Roussea 
"You can be a little ungrammatical if you come from the right part of the country." Robert Frost 
"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again."Oscar Wilde 
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." Cyril Connolly 
"I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork."Peter de Vries
          "A writer is working when he's staring out of the window."Burton Rascoe
"The secret of popular writing is never to put more on a given page than the common reader can lap off it with no strain whatsoever on his habitually slack attention." Ezra Pound 
"I try to leave out the parts that people skip." Elmore Leonard
"Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first hoped." Lillian Helman 
"I never knew what was meant by choice of words. It was one word or none." Robert Frost
"Look for all fancy wordings and get rid of them…Avoid all terms and expressions, old or new, that embody affectation."Jacques Barzun

"You must write every single day of your life…You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads….may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world." Ray Bradbury

"What a writer brings to any story is an attitude…" John Gregory Dunne

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go." E.L. Doctorow

"The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly…Once you've got some words looking back at you, you can take two or three - throw them away and look for others." Bernard Malamud

"Write in recollection and amazement for yourself." Jack Kerouac
"If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Toni Morrison

"To be clear is the first duty of a writer; to charm and to please are graces to be acquired later." Brander Matthews

"In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give to your style." Sydney Smith

"…your reader is at least as bright as you are." William Maxwell

"…you have to develop a conscience and if on top of that you have talent so much the better. But if you have talent without conscience, you are just one of many thousand journalists." F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Whether or not you write well, write bravely." Bill Stout

"The writer's duty is to keep on writing…" William Styron
"Never trust the artist. Trust the tale." D.H. Lawrence

"Caress the detail, the divine detail." Vladimir Nabokov

"Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better."
"The first draft of anything is sh*t." Ernest Hemingway 

"Use the right word and not its second cousin." Mark Twain

"Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write." Robert Penn Warren

"You only learn to be a better writer by actually writing." Doris Lessing

"A woman must have money and room of her own if she is to write fiction." Virginia Woolf
"Stick to the point." W. Somerset Maugham

"Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time…The wait is simply too long." Leonard S. Bernstein

"The duty and the task of a writer are those of an interpreter."Marcel Proust

"I seat myself at the typewriter and hope, and lurk." Mignon Eberhart

"The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting." Arthur Schopenhauer

"Planning to write is not writing. Outlining…researching…talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing." E.L. Doctorow

"When genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot." D.H. Lawrence
"Never write about a place until you're away from it, because that gives you perspective." Ernest Hemingway
"I write the first sentence and trust in God for the next."Laurence Sterne

"Writing a poem is discovering." Robert Frost

"If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average." Derek Walcott

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." Mark TwainV.S. Pritchett

"Write what should not be forgotten…" Isabel Allende

"Even the most productive writers are expert dawdlers…"Donald M. Murray

"Too many writers are trying to write with too shallow an education. Whether they go to college or not is immaterial…a good writer needs a sense of the history of literature to be successful as a writer." James Kisner

"Write without pay until somebody offers to pay." Mark Twain

"You have typewriters, presses. And a huge audience. How about raising hell?" Jenkin Lloyd Jones

"Revise and revise and revise - the best thought will come after the printer has snatched away the copy." Michael Morahan

"In a writer there must always be two people - the writer and the critic." Leo Tolstoy

"Writing is a sweet, wonderful reward…" Franz Kafka
"The first rule, indeed by itself virtually a sufficient condition for good style, is to have something to say." Arthur Schopenhauer

"Suspect all your favorite sentences." Kenneth Atchity

"Don't overwrite description in a story - you haven't got time."Elizabeth Spencer

"There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
Somerset Maugham

"Have something to say and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style." Matthew Arnold

"…writing comes more easily if you have something to say."Sholem Asch

"You fail only if you stop writing." Ray Bradbury

"Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing…."Bernard Malamud 
"Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to." Somerset Maugham
"Thoughts fly and words go on foot. Therein lies all the drama of a writer." Julien Green

"A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." Thomas Mann

"…therein is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident." H.L. Mencken

"Take away the art of writing from this world, and you will probably take away its glory." Chateaubriand

"You must write for yourself, above all. That is [your] only hope of creating something beautiful." Gustave Flaubert 

"Writing well is at one and the same time good thinking, good feeling, and good expression; it is having wit, soul, and taste, all together." Buffon

"To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make." Truman Capote

"I always do the first line well, but I have trouble with the others." Moliere

"A writer lives, at best, in a state of astonishment." William Sansom 
"All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath." F. Scott Fitzgerald 

"You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else." Grace Paley 

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." Gloria Steinem