Spaceship, Spaceship SPACESHIP!!! /  by Anthony Gibbins

Lego makes a long-sleeved minifigure t-shirt (tuniculam) adorned with a psychedelic Lego spaceman. That’s pretty awesome!

animadvertere became a favourite Latin word, as soon as I encountered it. The range of meanings offered by Cassell’s Latin Dictionary is ‘to take notice of’, ‘attend to’, ‘perceive’, ‘observe’. What appealed to me was the two halves of the word, and how they worked together. animus, Cassell’s says, defines ‘the spiritual or rational principle of life in humans (as opposed to corpus, the body)’ and ‘the seat of thought, intellect, mind’. vertere means ‘to turn’. Thus, to turn the animus towards something, is to notice it.

Pico hurries through the restaurant. No one (nemo) notices him except (nisi) this small boy wearing (gerens) an excellent t-shirt.

felix ianuaque /  by Anthony Gibbins

This is a true story, although I won't blame you if you don't believe it. I once lived with a cat called Geraldine (aka Gerry Howl). Geraldine got into the habit of scratching on my bedroom door every morning until I woke up to feed her. In the afternoon she would stretch out on my bed, the only place in this apartment that got any natural light. One afternoon, as I saw her sleeping lazily in the sun, I started scraping on the door with the tips of my fingers. I did it until she woke, and looked up at me with (what seemed) a vexed expression. I smiled back, but kept it up for another minute or so. And, I kid you not, she never scratched on the door thereafter.

It must be frustrating to be an animal living in a world of doors (or cans of food for that matter) that you can not open. Pico has to wait until (dum) someone (aliquis) entering (intrans - another participle!) opens the door. Then he secretly (clam) follows her.

Pico waits outside the restaurant until someone entering opens the door. At last (tandem) a certain woman enters. Pico secretly follows her.

Photoshop? /  by Anthony Gibbins

These photos are all taken on an iphone 5s. Not only does the camera do a reasonably good macro-lens shot, but it’s also small enough to cram into tight spaces, like the Highlander or Augustus’ office. The rich blue sky? That is just a piece of cardboard stuck to the wall behind my desk. The day I took this photo I ran down to the local toy store to buy this piece of road. Then I googled ‘lego cloud’. The sun is a close-up of the shield carried by the Minerva minifigure. It was all 'assembled' in Keynote. That is pretty much the sum of my image manipulation skills. Limited, but they do the job.

sole se celante is an Ablative Absolute. celante is another participle (see yesterday’s post). It means something like, ‘With the sun hiding itself’. post nubem means ‘behind a cloud’. The Main Clause of the sentence is Pico pavimentum relinquit, ‘Pico abandons the pavement’ and the pavement is described as iam frigidum, ‘now cold’. ut cauponam visitet is a Purpose Clause, which, as the name suggests, gives the reason someone does something. This one means ‘to visit the restaurant’.

We have seen the word placet (it pleases) and perplacet (it pleases very much) a couple of times now. pavimentum frigidum Piconi displicet means ‘The cold pavement displeases Pico’. valde is an adverb meaning ‘very much’.

The sun hiding itself behind a cloud, Pico abandons the now cold pavement to visit the restaurant. The cold pavement displeases Pico very much.

reading, reading and reading /  by Anthony Gibbins

This post is going to be the Latin grammar equivalent of a YouTube wormhole. You have been warned.

Let’s begin with a simple English sentence. ‘I want to read’. ‘I want’ is a Finite Verb; Finite because it has boundaries. Those boundaries are its Number and Person. Number is simple, Singular or Plural. ‘I want’ cannot mean ‘we want’. It just can’t. Person is a little more complicated. There is First Person (I or we), Second Person (you, you, youse or y’all) and Third Person (he, she, it or they). ‘I want’ doesn't mean ‘you want’. It just doesn't. ‘to read’ is not a Finite Verb. It is an Infinitive Verb. It just does not have the same boundaries. In Latin the entire sentence could be written cupio legere. (note the link between the verb ‘I want’ and Cupid, the God of Wanting).

Now, let’s move on to a second sentence. ‘It is good (bonum) to read’. In Latin this could be expressed bonum est legere. No problem here. Except, if you want to get technical, legere is no longer an Infinitive Verb. It is now a Gerund. And a Gerund is not a Verb at all, but a Noun. It makes sense, because if you were going to swap legere out for another word, it would be a Noun. A temple is good. bonum est templum. In English we can express the Gerund as ‘to read’ (as above) or as ‘reading’. Reading is good.

Now, I know what you are thinking. If the Gerund is a Noun, then surely it must have cases. And you would be right. In the sentence bonum est legere, legere is the Subject of the Verb and therefore in the Nominative Case. What, then, does the Gerund look like in, say, the Ablative Case? It looks like this; legendo. And the Gerund in the Ablative Case is a very useful thing. It can express the action by which something is achieved. For example, linguam Latinam legendo disco. I am learning (disco) the Latin language by reading.

I now want to finish up with a third and final sentence. ‘Do you see the children reading under the tree?’. In this sentence ‘reading’ is neither a Verb nor a Noun. It is a Participle. And a Participle is a kind of Adjective. ‘reading’ is describing the children. And in Latin we could express this as videsne pueros legentes sub arbore?

So legere, legendo and legentes can all be translated into English as ‘reading’ and yet all mean very different things. I bring all this up because today’s page has two Participles in it; praetereuntes (passing by) and custodientem (protecting). The first ends in –es because it is plural (describing people), the second in –em because it is singular (describing Miranda).

It pleases Pico to watch the people passing by. Do you see Miranda, the police officer (public guard), protecting the town?

lux solis /  by Anthony Gibbins

lux solis, or the light of the sun, is the only reason any of us are here. Short, tall, cheerful, glum, Democrat, Tory, rich, poor or middle-class, regardless of our skin colour, religious beliefs or who we love, whether we be hawks or doves, a feminist or that jerk who attacks a woman for expressing her opinions on the net. We are all the children of the sun.

Then, when the pavement has been warmed by the light of the sun, Pico hangs out for a while on the corner of the bank. 

benignus /  by Anthony Gibbins

One of the things you’ll notice about the way Pico experiences Legonium – and indeed, about Legonium in general – is that many people are benignus. So let’s look a little closer at this word. benignus, first of all, is an adjective. According to the Oxford Latin Dictionary it equates to the following words in English; kind, beneficent, open-handed, generous, liberal, lenient and equitable. When describing an object, such as a meal, journey, fountain or wind, it equates to beneficial, favorable, copious and abundant.

Like most Latin adjectives benignus has a comparative form – benignior – meaning ‘more benignus’ and a superlative form – benignissimus – meaning ‘very or most benignus’. Within the same family there are two adverbs – benigne and benigniter – that equate to ‘in a kindly manner’ and the noun benignitas, which equates to ‘kindness’ or ‘generosity’.

A few students have pointed out to me that giving milk to a cat is not really a kindness, due to their intolerance for lactose. I, however, could not resist including this old trope. You can buy lactose free milk specially for cats, but the best thing for them is water.

Moreoever, the man who runs the laundromat is very kind (here valde benignus = benignissimus). Every day he gives milk to Pico and often pats him.

sapo spumaque /  by Anthony Gibbins

sapo spumaque is my attempt to translate the name of the laundromat, Soap n Suds. Soap (sapo) is easy enough. spuma, however, more correctly means ‘froth’ than ‘suds’, and refers to liquid mixed with air rather than with washing powder. According to the 1874 classic, A Copious and Critical English-Latin Dictionary by William Smith and Theophilus D. Hall, the best translation of ‘suds’ is aqua sapone infecta. But sapo aquaque sapone infecta makes for a poor store name.

I really like the verb calefacio, calefacere, calefeci, calefactum. It is a combination of the verb facere (to make) and the adjective calidus (warm, hot). It means ‘to make warm’. The word for ‘cold’, by the way, is frigidus.

One last thing. lavatoriae is an adjective meaning ‘having to do with washing’. It is here describing the machinae.

Every day in the morning Pico spends time in the laundromat. This is most pleasing to him because the washing machines make the air warm there.

Part 6057751 /  by Anthony Gibbins

Just for fun, here is an introduction (or not) to the meta-language of Lego. Firstly, this ‘piece’ is a ‘part’. And this part? Part 6057751. Also known as Cat No. 2. It was first introduced in 2015 and its colour is officially listed as Dark Orange. The part itself is filed under System: Animals and Creatures.

Part 6057751 has appeared in four sets since its inception. It’s first appearance was in Set 40125: Santa’s Visit, a Seasonal Christmas Vignette. The cat is waiting by the fireplace for Santa to arrive. Its second appearance was in Set 10684: Supermarket Suitcase, a Juniors set that also came with a lot of bread, ice-cream and flowers. I got mine in Set 10246: Detective’s Office, which is classified as a Modular Building. It’s the set with the Highlander, Al’s barber shop and the mysterious rooftop hangout. Finally, it has appeared once this year in Set 76052: Batman Classic TV Series Batcave, which is a 2,526 part Batcave based on the 60’s tv-show. Here is a link, in case you want to check it out (http://brickset.com/sets/76052-1/Batman-Classic-TV-Series-Batcave). Apparently they had a cat.

Part 6057751 also appeared with one Collectable Minifigure from the Lego Movie series, that is 71004: Mrs. Scratchen-Post. I recently ordered one of these on e-bay. I needed the long grey hair and I thought a back-up Pico wouldn’t be as bad idea. Speaking of online shopping, you can pick up a pre-owned but mint-condition Pico on Bricklink.com for under a dollar. The Brick Strikes Back (France) has the cheapest, but if you are going for quantity U.S Bricks has 4,247 of them. Wow!

Okay, I think we are done here. Have a great day! Here is the translation. 

Pico, in my opinion, is an excellent cat. Today I want to tell you a story about a usual solito day in the delightful iucunda life of Pico the cat.